Campie Burma School Link

The Power of a Photo

2012-01-17T00:22:00.000-08:00

Being a follower of Borderline Collective on facebook (the art gallery and coffee shop in Mae Sot), I was sent a link to an article in The Irrawaddy:

http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=22861

This photo was taken on the rubbish dumps outside Mae Sot. This is the kind of situation many of the Burmese students see or have been through in their lives. Brings tears to your eyes.

Political Prisoners Released Today

2012-01-13T08:26:00.000-08:00

Today in Burma some of the highest profile political prisoners (people almost as important to the Burmese as Aung San Suu Kyi) were released. Is this a good sign?

The government released – Min Ko Naing, Ashin Gambira, Khun Tun Oo, Ko Ko Gyi, Khin Nyunt and many more. There is still a great deal of suspision surrounding the government though but we can at least hope this is a step in the right direction. We hope our Burmese friends feel the same!

Leaving Scotland .....

2011-10-04T13:37:00.000-07:00

After a wonderful 12 day visit to Campie, Say Hai and Thein Naing finally set off for Mae Sot. The journey started at 4pm Tuesday and they may not get back till Friday. They have been incredible ambassadors for their people and have taught everyone who met them so much. Dablo Thein Naing and Say Hai. We're missing you.

Thein Naing swims in the North Sea!

2011-09-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

Today was the hottest September day Scotland has had for decades, which gave Thein Naing the opportunity he has been talking about since he came. He went swimming in the Firth of Forth, which flows into the North Sea and is really really COLD. This man is a hero! It seems Say Hai has photos. Watch this space!

Today we visited Campie and Musselburgh Grammar

2011-09-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

It was another nice day, quite sunny. I had my traditional Shan ethnic dress on so that teachers and students would have a chance to know what we wear in Burma.

Our first class was P6 (a) and the class teacher was Ms. Zoe. We brought two big posters from Thai-Burma borders. Both has the same title ‘Who is in charge of your life?’. The Campie primary students last year sent their poster with their different thoughts on the topic to CDC students in Mae Sot, Thailand so that our Burmese students could know and do a comparison with them. The Campie students, at that time in their P5 mentioned such as – parents, teachers, government, etc. But a year later, when I asked them if they have changed their thinking about the person in charge of their life, many grade 6 studnets answered ‘yes’ and asked me to add ‘yourself” in the list.

Our CDC students’ poster which was brought back by Campie teachers had some notes in it. The person in charge of their lives: Dr. Cynthia Maung, Aung San Suu Kyi, parents, teachers. Then I had to explain Campie’s grade 6 students who Dr. Cynhtia and Aung San Suu Kyi were, and why they have chosen so. The Campie students looked very interesting that a medical doctor has been providing health care for 150,000 population and providing an education opportunities for thousands of refugee children. Also, unless Burma becomes a democratic nation, many children’s lives, including CDC students, are not going to be easy. That was why they chose our democracy champion Aung San Suu Khi, the 1990 Noble Peace Prize Winner, as their aspired person. I found the students’ opinions in both schools quite interesting, and believed they all learned something from each other, simply by sending the posters with scribbles.

We answered some more questions from the students about CDC children and their lives on borders and refugee camps. One campie child asked me what would I do for CDC school if I had received lots and lots of money. They seemed to be quite astonished to my answer as I explained that I would provide a reading corner with lots of books in every classroom at CDC and more books for both teachers and students.

We concluded our lesson by teaching them how we spelt Campie School in Burmese, and they wrote their very first Burmese words.

After the first class, our acting Head Teacher, Mrs. Clarke, took us to Musselburgh Grammar School. I was invited to observe the first part of Citizenship class for Secondary (5/6) with the teacher, Ms. Jane Bonnar. After a quick chat, she asked me to do a presentation about my life story and the stuggle for democracy and human rights in Burma. For next 25 minutes, all the 35 senior students found it quite interesting to learn someone of their age had to become an active member in democratic struggle, escaped to remotest jungle on borders, set up a school for 500 displaced children, and survived on monthly income of a tin of rice and some vegetables for seven years. Many more interesting questions, answers and comments followed. I learned the new teaching methodology – Think, Learn, and ACT.

Three students showed us classes for Social Sciences, Arts and Business Management subjects. We observed each classes, had a chat with the teachers and studnets and learned a lot. I was quite surprised to learn that all students had to submit their art works for assessment. And I quite liked the idea. The Art teacher was explaining me how the students had been utilizing recycled materials to create their art work and learn in class. RME was also a key learning area, both Say Hei and I had very little knowledge regarding curriculum planning.

During lunch time at the Grammar school, I had another opportunity to talk to Musselburhg’s students members of the Amnesty International. I am quite delighted to observe that young students are concerned about international crisis and humanitarian situation elsewhere. I learned their activities, and shared my life as an activist students 23 years ago.

When we come back to Campie, P (4/5/6/7) students were ready for an assembly. Ms. Juliane explained them about the Global School partnership project and our journey from Thai-Burma borders to Campie and how we are doing. Then the students from different classes asked questions to Say Hei and me. Very interesting questions about lives in other part of the world.

Then we visited Ms. Kat’s house for dinner, and she cooked for us a wonderful meals.

Thein Naing and Say Hei

Thein Naing and Say Hai'sfirst day in Campie School

2011-09-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

I walked to Campie School with 3 students. It was a nice walk for 15 minutes on the sunny morning in East Lothian’s autumn. Fresh sea air has helped me a lot to quickly adjust the weather, and it is quite different from my usual morning in Mae Sot.

The school is quite magnificant with calm look, and strong, grey colour building appeals to me in many ways. Previously, I had a different view on UK. I have translated a short novel for my education magazine. The title was ‘Two world’ by Helen Everett Camplin. It is story about 3 struggling youths from other countries in London, and in it there is an expression of boring looks of the buildings in UK, even the grey colour birds are not any match to the the youths’ mother country’s landscape, flora and fauna.

But what surprised me was the movement and liveliness inside this old, normal building. What a lively place to be! And I am quite surprised to see the creativity and intuitive minds the Campie’s teachers and students possess. Within the first few weeks in the academic year, there are full of interesting pictures, postings, decoractive designs all made by East Lothian young minds and hands.

The first class Naw Say Hei and I taught was Ms. Kat’s P1/2. We had a post card session. The CDC school students have answered to the Campie’s student’s queries about lives on Burma borders and at CDC. Then we provided the students with some Burmese traditional and cultural pictures. I have chosen the picture with a young man rowing a boat in Inle Lake in Shan State in eastern Burma. The students were quite surprised to learn the boy in the picture uses his feet to handle the oar. We also played a guessing game. We did similar lessons with P2/3 class wit Ms. Louise.

In P7a class, after briefly observing Mr.Craig’s lesson on different Parliaments and political roles, I decided to follow on the interesting lesson by linking the Campie’s older students’ knowledge to Burma and our strugle for democracy and peace.

The students eagerly participatd in the discussion session and generated many question on Burma, Aung San Suu Kyi and the struggle for democracy, refugees, CDC studets’ learning and many other questions on human rights movement.

We had another two lesson for P6c and P6b, and Say Hei drew a picture of a bananar leaves to demonstrate the structre and shape. Some cultural understanding activities.

All the students in every class are ready t0 ask questions or provide comments. And that was quite cheerful for me. and I was thinking about living curriculum and active participation.

After school, we met Mr. Don Ledingham, our Executive Director of Education & Children’s Services at East Lothian Council. I am honored to meet the senior Scottish educator who cares a lot. We had a discussion on how the education activities for refugees and displaced communities on Thai Burma borders can be further developed. I am very much excitied for our underpriviledge children’s opportunities in education.
Cheers
Thein Naing

BEST Fundraiser

2011-09-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

Last night Say Hai and Thein Naing enjoyed some Burmese food and Burmese company at Myint Su's house as part of a BEST fundraiser. BEST help Burmese students to enroll in an access course at Newbattle College. Thus enabling them entry into a university course, here in the UK, on completion of the course. A lovely night was had by all!

Day 1 @ Campie

2011-09-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

Day 1 @ Campie on PhotoPeach

Here are a few snaps of Thein Naing and Say Hai's lessons from today. The visited P1/2, P2/3, P7a, P6b and P6c. Hopefully they will blog about their day later - before they fall fast asleep. They are off to meet Don Ledingham just now! From what I've heard the children have loved seeing them in their classes and were really engaged.

Say Hai and Thein Naing Land Safely in Sunny Scotland!

2011-09-24T10:43:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo they have arrived safely!Was going to say it has been a long time in coming but this time it has been the complete opposite of Say Hai’s last visit and we have literally known for just over a week!

Lovely to see them both again! Miss Lendrum, Miss Macnaughton, Gaynor, Imogen, Livvy, Amy and Emma all arrived at the airport to meet our Burmese visitors. They looked a little travel weary and I suspect they are already tucked up in bed to recover from the long journey.

Sweet dreams – the Campie children can’t wait to see you on Monday.

ps They chose the right weekend to come the weather has been glorious today! Must have brought the sun from Thailand - brilliant.

Burma Night at Campie

2011-08-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

Only the second day of term and we had our first Campie School community event of the year, which was very ambitious. However, the fundraising team worked together in the holidays and with a lot of help from our Burmese and Forthview friends, we enjoyed a great evening together. Well maybe ENJOYED isn't the best word.

Lisa Houston gave us a heart moving presentation about the work of Mae Tao Clinic (www.maetaoclinic.org). Mae Tao Clinic was set up after the student uprising on 8.8.88 in Rangoon, when Dr Cynthia Maung fled to Mae Sot and set up a clinic in her home. It is now THE ONLY HEALTH SERVICE for half a million internally displaced Burmese and Karen people in East Burma and on the Thai border and serves 120,00 poor Burmese and Karen people working around Mae Sot.

Most moving was when Lisa herself was overcome as she spoke of how desperate people's lives are that sometimes the best choice they can make for their babies is to abandon them at Mae Tao Clinic because they know they will be fed, cared for and given education and a home in the boarding houses.

It's the Dry Food Programme that feeds children in the boarding houses, that Campie School Rice Fund supports. We were all shocked to know what the monthly ration for a child was. We'll talk about this more at Campie.

Apart from Lisa's presentation, we enjoyed the 'best Burmese food yet' and a wee dance. Thanks to Irvine and Gail from Forthview for leading the dancing, even if we had run out of time! It was great too to be joined by Don Ledingham, our Executive Director, Angus Tulloch of the Maitre Trust and Fiona O' Donnell, our MP. It all went to creating a unique and magnificent evening. Thank you Lisa.
PS If anyone has a good photo of the night, send it to me and I'll post it! My batteries ran out.

Thinking Classroom Foundation, Chiang Mai

2011-07-18T08:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.thinkingclassroom.org/

Today, we visited our dear friend, Dr Thein Lwin at his Migrant Learning Centre in Chiang Mai.

Dr Thein Lwin is a very radical and powerful educator who has led the way in Critical Thiinking for Burmese teachers and schools. His experience and research have led him to develop Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking and he trains Burmese teachers on both sides of the Thai Burma border in this style of learning.

Dr Thein Lwin has always supported our Global Schools Partnerships. As ever, he is full of considered thought and understanding about the situation for Burmese education. You can see him here inbetween my husband and I. Thank you Thein Lwin, as ever for your gracious hospitality and discussion. Sheila

Buying stationery

2011-07-17T04:00:00.000-07:00

Part of the Global Schools Funding for this year's project provides resources for the learning theme. We were able to give CDC 5000 Thai Bahts to buy resources for making and displaying children's work at CDC. So I went with Say Hai and Khu Paw to the stationery shop. They were SO SCARED to spend the money. "AArgh! 6 bahts for a piece of display paper. It's so expensive."

"It's OK. You can afford it. You have to spend 5000 Thai Bahts." They went back to CDC, loaded with paper, post its, display paper, scissors, wax crayons, tape and much more.

"We will write letter to say thank you to British Government and Global School Partnerships."

Humbling, eh?

DAY 6 - CDC Final Day

2011-07-14T05:34:00.000-07:00

DAY 6 - CDC Final Questions and Feedback. on PhotoPeach

Today was very emotive and moving for us all...these photographs speak for themselves.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Sheila for providing us with this unique opportunity...it has been one of the most rewarding and fulfilling experiences we have had. We would also like to extend our gratitude to the staff and students of CDC school, they have been enthusiastic, inspirational and supportive throughout our visit. We are honoured to have worked with such a dedicated and positive school community.

A final 'thank you' must also be extended to Eh Thwa and the staff at Mae Tao Clinc, as well as the owners and staff at the 'Casa Mia' restaurant for allowing us to exhibit the Grade 5 students Aung San Su Kyi work.

We hope that you too have enjoyed our blog entries...we would like to thank you all for your comments, they have really motivated us, especially when we are working at midnight listening to Kat's iPhone to keep us awake!

DAY 5 - CDC 'Why Should We Care For Others?'

2011-07-13T07:12:00.000-07:00

DAY 5 - CDC on PhotoPeach

Today we worked with the children to display some of their questions, photographs and drawings to share with the other CDC classes and teachers. The children really enjoyed helping us to create the wall montage and then had great fun exploring it with their friends.

The Grade 1 children worked with a talking partner today...they were thinking deeply about the BIG question, 'Why should we care for others?'. Then they shared their thoughts, feelings and answers in a class 'Thought Shower' session. We also shared the P2 Campie children's answers to this question with the CDC children and many of their answers were the same. The CDC children then worked collaboratively drawing around each other's hands because we talked about how we can show that we care for others with our hands...giving our friends a cuddle, sharing, holding hands...

In Grade 5, the students completed their Aung San Su Kyi BIG questions and we explained to the students that their work is going to be exhibited in the local Burmese Health Clinic called Mae Tao and a popular restaurant called 'Casa Mia'. The students and teachers were very excited and proud of what they have achieved. We explained that we wanted to share their excellent thought provoking questions and beautiful portraits of Aung San Sui Kyi with their own and the wider community of Mae Sot.

It has been one of the most rewarding days so far...as we both feel that the children have been teaching and the teachers that we have been working with are fully engaged with the different teaching and learning approaches that we have used. Many of the children have a good understanding of the different question words and the older children have demonstrated a greater ability to think more deeply about how to phrase their questions using more complex question vocabulary.

A gift from Stan for CDC Nursery

2011-07-13T02:10:00.000-07:00

Stan Andre ran the Edinburgh Marathon for CDC School. Today we gave the money he raised to Khu Paw for CDC Nursery. She loves the nursery to look good and longs to have resources so children can play and draw freely. She was VERY HAPPY. Thank you Stan. You are THE MAN!

Jags at School

2011-07-13T02:06:00.000-07:00

Hurray, this afternoon, I was well enough to get back up to CDC (by tuk tuk not bike), teach for 2 lessons, show Myoe Nyunt how to blog before Geoff brought a tuk tuk to take me home..... where I promptly threw up! Except I had nothing to throw up as all I've eaten yesterday and today is a wee plate of mashed tatties! Anyway, I can hear you all saying too much information.... there is actually more information but I'm being restrained! Back to the story.

As I was working with Grade 6, answering Campie students' questions, a few children at a time were going out then coming in silently or very loudly wailing. Yes, it's injection day at school today.

Myoe Nyunt

2011-07-13T01:25:00.000-07:00

We are happy to work with Scottish teachers and I got many technique or teaching methods so i believe that this project will be helpful for us. Now i was being with Teacher Sheila learning to how to post on blog.

CDC Boarding House

2011-07-12T08:23:00.000-07:00

Another day another thought provoking visit. There is no way you can come away from the boarding house without feeling an enormous sense of guilt and disgust with yourself. All the little things we take for granted and moan about at home e.g. that washing machine that needs fixed, that wallpaper we are bored of, the drawer that is overflowing because we have bought too many clothes (that don't fit) or the food we throw out weekly as we have over indulged.
80 girls live at Say Hei's Boarding House.1 boy who is an orphan that Say Hei has taken under her wing and 7 girls who are orphans. They live together as a large family unit. The whole thing works as everyone plays their role for the week in the rota and jobs get done without a fuss. This afternoon we watched as the girls returned from school, quickly changed, unloaded the dirty lunch dishes and started emptying the waste water from the plates and clothes washing, with buckets, into the drains outside. All with a smile!
They really are an inspiration to us all.

As with yesterday's Mae Tao Clinic blog we have not included any photos, as we did not take any. We wanted to maintain peoples' privacy and dignity.

Day 4 - Thinking About Deeper Questions ?????

2011-07-12T07:49:00.000-07:00

DAY 4 - THINKING ABOUT DEEPER QUESTIONS ????? on PhotoPeach

Today we worked with the Grade 1 and KG classes on some 'Ultimate Questions' based around why we care for others, why we need rules and why some people are bad. The children found the work quite tricky and we encouraged them to draw their answers to these questions. Their drawings are beautiful; very detailed and many demonstrate that the children seem to be more able to think more deeply before answering thought provoking questions.

We managed a short sing song in the nursery today. Gillian used puppets made from foam animals and lollipop sticks to recreate Old McDonald and 5 Little Monkeys. We also sang 5 Little Ducks, Hello Mr Sun and the Days of the Week song. The children were far more focused and engaged today. They were very excited to see us and knew it meant singing time so came and sat down straight away at our feet. Unfortunately we do not have anyone to translate in the nursery and so spending a long period of time here is a little tricky with so many children.

Our work in Grade 5 has been centred around developing the childrens' knowledge and understanding of the different questioning vocabulary...we revisited the question words WHAT? WHO? WHY? WHERE? WHEN? HOW? and to our delight some of the children extended this repertoire to include ARE? DO? IS?...during our Aung San Su Kyi question activity. The children were asked to think of 3 questions they could ask this inspirational woman if she was to walk into the class. Their questions included:

Why were you put into prison?
What did you do when you were under house arrest?
When will Burma be free again?
When can I go back to Burma?

We were elated at all their responses. This lesson obviously was so relevant for them that they were motivated to do well. Even the "big" boys (they are about 16 years old whilst the youngest members of the class were 9 or 10) spent ages talking, thinking and drawing during this period. Super! Achievement!

Mae Tao Clinic

2011-07-11T09:01:00.000-07:00

Wow well this amazing facility does not fail to impress and shock even on a second visit!
In February 1989 Dr Cynthia Maung set up a makeshift medical clinic 5 months after fleeing a brutal military crackdown in Burma. All of the clinic's medical instruments fitted into the bag that Dr Cynthia had thrown over her shoulder during her 10 day trek to escape Burma.
Today the clinic is a comprehensive community health centre with more than 1000 graduates working in clinics, schools, villages and camps along the Thai-Burma border. The clinic has a rising case load of over 90,000 patients a year many coming from the hills of Burma to receive free health care.
Seeing the range of facilities here is impressive from counselling, acupuncture, prosthetics, optometry, dentistry, paediatric ward, maternity ward, surgical ward, patient library, blood donation service, extensive training programmes to name but a few. It is no wonder people travel dangerous routes to receive the treatment they so need and deserve. Treatments we take for granted and often criticise about on the NHS.
I suppose the shocking aspects are the lack of "sterile" environments. As you walk around the clinic you see dried blood on the concrete floors. Wards have little privacy with patients being on full view of each other as they receive treatment. The matter fact way they spoke about potentially fatal injuries and diseases which we in reality we may never have to deal with e.g. landmines, dengue, malaria.
You can't help coming away from an experience such as today without having an immense feeling of guilt. They are constantly striving to improve this facility for the Burmese people in this and the surrounding community. The care a patient receives here makes a massive impact on their life and for this reason alone the clinic will continue to be the hub of this community. It has very close ties with our partnership school, CDC. We both felt very privileged to be given time to see round the clinic by a very busy but knowledgeable member of staff - thank you. Thank you to Eh Thwa, the training team manager for arranging this visit for us.

Day 3 - Learning More About Questions ?????

2011-07-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

Day 3 - Learning To Ask Questions ????? on PhotoPeach

May Htoo was the saviour of the day - she translated in the majority of our classes and did an amazing job.
KG
We sang the Fischy Music song "Why?" with them and then we read the story "Why do the stars come out at night?" by Annalena McFee and Anthony Lewis. This story is based round all the kinds of questions that children wonder about such as:

Why is the sky so high? The oldest child replied with "because god is in the sky and he made the sky."

Why do babies cry? "because they have no Mum or Dad. They are dead."

Why do we fall asleep? "because it is dark... I don't like to sleep because I have bad dreams...I dream about my brother dying."

Grade 1
We explained the different words we use at the start of sentences which help us form questions - who, what, where, when, why and how. The children were then asked to form their own questions in pairs and to choose one of these to share with the class. They wrote their questions in Burmese. Some of the more poignant ones were:
Why do we live?,
Why don't you come to school?,
Why do you learn?
Why do you write?

Grade 5
Grade 5A answered Campie's questions and posed questions to them about life in Scotland. They tried really hard to achieve this in English.
Grade 5B engaged in work relating to the formation of questions using various question words. They were asked to do this with a partner and in English. They found this a challenge however their confidence grew as we fed back to the class. We spoke about the importance of asking questions to increase knowledge. We talked about the news and newspapers not always telling the full truth - they will tell you what they want you to hear - and it is crucial that they realise this and ask for more detail.
We are hoping they come prepared for tomorrow's lesson on questions for Aung San Suu Kyi - they seemed very excited about this. Hope they don't think she is making a personal appearance!

Overall today seemed to be a real success. The children seemed to enjoy getting the chance to think together and they definitely seemed to improve in formulating questions. We went home exhausted but happy.

Monday Lurgy

2011-07-10T20:27:00.001-07:00

Oh dear, my sore tummy has developed into full blown TD (traveller's diarrhoea and vomiting) so I've slept through Saturday night, after the dreaded night market meal, and Sunday. Well, I did make it up to Casa Mia to meet our friends Niamh, Jack and Onya but then Jack had to take me home mid meal to hurl. So the teachers have gone to CDC on their own today. Geoff says my brain is back so hopefully I am on the mend. The teachers will blog their Monday adventures later. Ms L

Congratulations Miss MacFarlane

2011-07-10T00:30:00.001-07:00

on the birth of your baby girl yesterday. Greta is a lovely name and we're glad you are all well. Thanks so much for texting us. :)

Saturday in Mae Sot - an assortment of photos

2011-07-09T09:16:00.000-07:00

Today Kat and Gillian went swimming in the posh hotel on the outskirts of town. When they came back, we had a visit from 2 of Louise's friends, who brought round what Louise left behind for us to bring home. They kindly borrowed a big car to take us to the Border, where we walked by the River Moei, looking over to Burma. The border is still closed so we couldn't go over. We did a bit of haggling in the Border Market, came home, went to TESCO - yes it's even here! - and ate at the night market, which I HATE. UGH! I now have a sore tummy. :(

In the summertime... on PhotoPeach

The border between Burma and Thailand has been closed for a year. However, Burmese people come over to Thailand illegaly on either large tyre tubes or, as you see here, on a boat. It used to cost 100 kyats but now it costs 500 kyats. When you get off, after paying your 500 kyats, you have to pay another 500 kyats at a gate. The owner of the boat has to pay the Burmese police a cut of the fees.

Welcome Assembly

2011-07-09T08:58:00.000-07:00

At CDC school, in the morning, the students and teachers line up in the assembly hall and outside their classrooms, sign the Thai National Anthem, raise the Thai flag and have a moment's silence to respect Thailand.

What do you think about that?

(Geoff's made this wee montage of some video clips Kat managed to take. They're not great because we didn't want to offend by not facing the flag respectfully too.)

A message for Ms Porter

2011-07-08T22:33:00.001-07:00

Have a beautiful wedding day, Ms Porter. We're thinking of you here in Mae Sot. Enjoy! Don't forget the mozzie spray for the honeymoon. with our love, Sheila, Kat and Gillian

Problem with header

2011-07-08T07:05:00.000-07:00

Our accompanying IT adviser is trying to sort the problem with the header of the blog. He's a bit stumped at the moment but I have total faith in his ability to resolve any problem, just might take time. Sorry!

Friday Meal Out for 4 costs £10

2011-07-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

Just had a meal at my beloved Casa Mia. So if you say £1 = 50 Thai Bahts, the total cost of a meal for 4 was 495 Thai Baht = just under £10.

1 Bruschetta = 30 Thai Baht
1 Penne Al Forno = 60 TB
3 lime shakes = 90 TB
1 pork fried rice = 45 TB
1 Singha beer = 70 TB
1 steam veg + shrimps = 50 TB
I ravioli = 90 TB
2 Banoffee pies = 60 TB

And it was all so delicious....

Day 2 - Welcome and Question Work with the CDC Children.

2011-07-08T00:00:00.000-07:00

Day 2 at CDC - Assembly and Question Work. on PhotoPeach

Day two started VERY early in the morning with a 7am cycle to 'Casa Mia' for breakfast and planning for the day ahead at CDC. Ms Laing and Miss MacNaughton were so pleased to see the same waitress and Miss Lendrum loved her tropical fruit platter and Scottish tea (courtesy of Ms Laing!). Afterwards, the journey on two wheels continued to CDC...

Ms Laing started the school day off with a Welcome Assembly. Say Hei introduced us after the daily ritual of the rising of the Thai national flag to the Thai national anthem - this year accompanied by a drum and flute style band. We then led the singing of 'I Feel Good' (a Fischy favourite from last year) as well as introducing a new one - 'Why?' which fits with our Ultimate Questions project. We also brought Grade 1 out to the front of the hall to sing 'I Can Clap My Hands' - another fav from last year.They were great - if not a little star struck.

Miss Lendrum and I then headed off with Myoe Nuant to spend the morning with Grade 1 and Kindergarten, and the afternoon with Grade 5B. The children were really pleased to receive a question from a friend in Scotland and did a fabulous job of trying to draw or write an answer that their friend would understand. They then made up their own questions that we will take back to Campie and Say Hei will return the answers to them on her return journey in the Autumn term.

The children wanted to know things such as:

KG
What does your house look like?
Do you have a zoo?
Are you well and comfortable?

Grade 1
Are your toys beautiful?
Are you happy going to school?
Do you have children that are orphans?
Do you have any refugees like us?

Grade 5
How many students at your school?
Are you happy living in Scotland?
Who is your best friend?
What do teachers do during summer vacation?

Ms Laing did the same lessons in the middle school classes - they answered the Campie childrens' questions and will make up their own questions next week.

Today it was lovely spending time with the children again - they are so welcoming and respectful. The staff are so humble and generous. The enormous amount of food that appeared at lunch time for us to eat was totally unexpected - we tried hard to try all the different Thai delicacies e.g. vegetable fritters, onion fritters, prawn stir fry, spicy vegetable salad, rice and crunchy noodles (which were a little like crisps).

Although we love spending time at CDC we are all looking forward to tomorrow and Sunday where we can relax a bit before 4 crazy school days next week.

Day 2 - Welcome and Question Work at CDC on PhotoPeach

Day One - Meeting the Pupils and Teachers at CDC.

2011-07-07T05:17:00.000-07:00

Welcome Staff Meeting At CDC! on PhotoPeach

Wow - feels so amazing but also so surreal to be back at CDC...Miss Lendrum just feels overwhelmed. Went into last year's KG class (you remember 2 hours of maths every afternoon number to 5!) and they launched into 5 Little Ducks - brilliant. It made my year. They have all grown so much and still so gorgeous -yes Mum I've remembered I can't bring any children home.

We had a late start today - with Fried Egg Rice at Auntie's for me and some European cuisine for the others. We then collected our bikes and headed up to CDC for a meeting with the primary teachers where we explained this year's project in fuller depth for those who had not been previously involved. Was lovely to see faces old and new. The fabulous Myoe Nuant did a great job of translating for us.

Seeing as Campie children had asked questions for the CDC children we decided to get the CDC teachers to ask the Campie teachers questions. Some were very hard to answer.
e.g.
How do you teach different levels of the same children in the same class?
How will we carry on working together if the project is not allowed by the UK government?
How do you manage special education students in class?

On our way home we popped into the nursery for an unplanned visit to see the beautifully decorated room that some of the children learn and play in...Ku Paw was pleasantly surprised to see us even though she was heading for a shower!

Only one near miss whilst cycling through Mae Sot...poor Ms Laing hit a long rut in the road and did an amazing emergency stop and jump before hitting a concrete wall. Real 'Wonderwoman' action shot, no photos though as Miss Lendrum was too busy holding on to her handlebars and Miss MacNaughton is a speed demon on her red wheels! Ms Laing is fine and dandy by the way.

We are all very excited to get started tomorrow with an early morning 'I Wonder' assembly at 8:45 - better make sure we get up on time! Oh goodness me...a 6 am alarm call. Ahhhhh! Miss Macnaughton and Miss Lendrum

For me today was very moving. The partnerships are a lot of hard work, jumping through hoops to get the DfID funding and negotiating visas is such depressing hard work as our teachers apply and apply and get refused entry to UK. Then today, I have the incredible privilege to stand up in front of 21 Burmese and Karen teachers and talk them through the project we have planned together. We have SO MUCH, they have so little and yet we can come and they listen so attentively to us. I hope the work we do together in this year helps them as much as their partnership helps us in Scotland. I feel so humbled and so very lucky to be part of a partnership with the immensely inspiring Burmese people. Sheila

Going to Mae Sot

2011-07-06T07:29:00.000-07:00

Going to Mae Sot on PhotoPeach

Having just arrived in Mae Sot, my first impressions are very different to how I imagined...it is much more built up, with a VERY busy road system that seems really chaotic despite being one way. The air is filled with a mix of exotic spices, fumes and the ever present aroma of open drains.....We received a very warm welcome from Say Hey and her son, Ku Paw, Myoe Nuant and Kiki which made the bus journey from Chiang Mai a distant memory.

Ms Laing is coping very well with the numerous changes since last year's visit; not only did she have to stay in a new hotel in Chiang Mai...the Orchid did not impress, although the pool was glorious, but we have been 'upgraded' to the brand new plush 'executive wing' of the DK.....we have a fridge...but no balcony...let's see what changes tomorrow brings when we all meet the school staff at CDC. Miss Lendrum

It was lovely to arrive in Mae Sot, as it always is. We do love it. Then to be met by Say Hei and her son, Ku Paw, Myoe Nyunt and the Mae Tao Cinic car. Then off to the DK, hoping we wouldn't be on the top floor!

All the teachers who have been here with us before will be amazed when we show you the new DK annexe. It's a lovely house with new furnishings, cotton sheets (hurray!), a fridge to keep Geoff happy, free wifi, soft towels, tall toilet and a shower that looks good. Oh yes and it's on the ground floor, no more hikes up those steep stairs because we forgot our bike key!. Thank you Teacher Kiki for booking these rooms for us. We're well chuffed.

We went to eat at Canadian Dave's tonight. Even Dave's changed. He's expanded to the shop next door and was very very busy. It was lovely to be back. I even ate cashew and pineapple fried rice to confound those of you who think I'm not adventurous! See, like the Campie kids, I CAN DO CHANGE!

Miss Lendrum is nervous about tomorrow. We're having a lazy morning, then off to rent our bikes that Bobo had arranged for us in the morning. At lunchtime, we go to CDC and will pop into all the classes to say hi before meeting the primary school teachers after school to discuss this year's project. The work begins. Ms Laing

PS Photopeach slideshow seems to have knocked our header off.... a job for SuperGeoff.... tomorrow!

Today we go to Mae Sot

2011-07-05T19:03:00.000-07:00

It's 9am and we're up for breakfast, which Miss Macnaughton and Miss Lendrum slept right through yesterday. They didn't wake up until 1pm. We thought they'd gone sightseeing but they were snoring in their beds. Today however, Miss Lendrum is back to normal. Many of you know that means she's at the gym at the crack of dawn before school. There is a gym here but it's a bit creepy so here is Miss Lendrum, on lap 121 of the hotel swimming pool, while the rest of us drag ourselves out of bed. It's another hot and sunny day here in Chiang Mai. We leave at 1.10pm on the Green Bus, arriving at Mae Sot at 6.40pm. It's time to leave those western toilets behind and start squatting. Joy!

Chiang Mai Chill Out

2011-07-05T08:13:00.002-07:00

Well Miss Lendrum and Miss Macnaughton missed the first part of day catching up on some much needed sleep before refreshing ourselves in the swimming pool with a few laps!

Sheila and Geoff found this safe looking child's seat on a Saungtaw! Interesting - think braking would result a child being catapulted into next year.
We then went to meet Stuart Simpson and Murray Forgie for a coffee to catch up on the life and times of Chiang Mai. Lovely to see the guys as always.

Off to snooze - lets hope we don't do another 14 hour stint or we'll miss the bus to Mae Sot.

p.s.

Miss Lendrum's first impression is that Chiang Mai is very western.

Safely arrived in Thailand

2011-07-04T09:08:00.000-07:00

Ms Laing and Geoff arrived in Bangkok at noon and got to our hotel at 4.45pm. We had a great journey. We booked really early with Air France. It only cost £650 from Edinburgh to Bangkok and was the best flight we've taken over the 5 years we've been coming. I phoned Say Hei at CDC and Myoe Nyunt. They're excited to see us on Wednesday when we go by but to Mae Sot. Tomorrow is a day for swimming, sleeping and resting to get over a short but torrid term. We're also going to see Murray and Stewart who started us off on the partnerships 6 years ago. That'll be lovely. The weather here today was sunny and hot, which was a wee bonus as we've been told it's raining hard in Mae Sot.

Tonight at 10.20pm, Miss Macnaughton and Miss Lendrum finally made it into Chiang Mai after a very long and hard journey. Miss Macnaughton woke up to a tummy upset on Sunday and only made it here thanks to the wonderdrug Imodium. We don't usually use them till we get to Mae Sot. Let's hope it's not a sign of what's to come. They travelled from Edinburgh to London to Delhi to Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Ugh.... too many flight changes but I guess they have youth on their side. Our Thai driver said, "They are teachers? They are too young!" I did enlighten them that actually they're quite old!

Booking in before crashing into a bed. How good is a bed after flying all night? Breakfast at 9.30am and a lazy day tomorrow before travelling to Mae Sot. It's great to be back in Thailand.

IF YOU WANT TO LEAVE A COMMENT, CHOOSE ANONYMOUS FROM THE DROP DOWN MENU, WRITE YOUR COMMENT THEN PRESS PUBLISH (probably) TWICE. That seems to work. Thanks for telling us that in your comment Alicia. Not had that wee babby yet then?

En Paris

2011-07-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

Nous sommes en Paris and there's only 2 cafes in Charles De Gaulle airport. How weird is that. We've had a 5hr wait here but at least we're well. Poor MissMacnaughton was ill last night and today and she's still coming. She should be in London now and Miss Lendrum is flying to London as we speak. They meet there then fly to somewhere in India where they change for Bangkok. Our 12 hour flight is from Paris to Bangkok. CDC seems a long way away..... Ms L

Two Sleeps!

2011-07-01T04:43:00.000-07:00

Well school is over and the time has nearly come for another trip to Mae Sot. Keep watching the blog over the next few weeks to keep updated on our adventures. If the blog tickles your fancy for a bit more of Burma I would recommend Little Daughter by Zoya Phan (which I've not had the time to finish yet - 1/2 to go and only this afternoon to read it - before I return to the library). It is an easy read - considering - and from what I have read so far is a typical (ish) Karen life story. Also Lisa Houston is mentioned in the acknowledgements - I can only assume it's our Lisa from Mae Tao clinic. Happy summer! Miss Macnaughton

Preparing To Go

2011-06-22T08:42:00.000-07:00

Campie's Ultimate Questions on PhotoPeach

Miss Macnaughton and Miss Lendrum started to prepare for their visit to CDC, Mae Sot. We leave next Sunday - so much to do and so little time.
The main learning during the visit will be around Ultimate Questions. We spent time this morning in a few classes preparing work to take to CDC to use with the children there. Each class we went to spent time discussing their answers to an Ultimate Question to create a poster
.
P1/2 looked at Is anger wrong?
P2 looked at Why should I care for others?
P5a discussed Who should be in charge of my life?
P5b discussed Do animals matter as much as people?
P5c discussed Should we test cosmetics on animals?

The answers and the reasons behind them were brilliant - noone was right or wrong - all answers were accepted.
A huge thanks to the children and the teachers for letting us visit today - you were amazing!
P.S. Once the posters have been returned to us we will post some of their answers

We never know when the sunshine is coming to us...

2011-02-23T14:35:00.000-08:00

Myoe Nyunt, CDC teacher, has written this beautiful letter to the UK Government to tell how important our Global School Partnership is to CDC.

Dear Mr. Andrew Mitchell,

We are incredibly upset for hearing about the UK government’s reconsideration of the DfID Global Schools Partnership scheme. As you know we have plight forever. We never know when the sunshine is coming to us. We are living illegally and we feel blind because we cannot go anywhere to be open-minded. Children are leaders for the future, so they need to know about the world wherever they arrived.
Global Schools Partnerships is a very important program for our Burmese students and Scottish students. It allows them to share their opinions and their culture in both communities. We have had our partnership for a year, during the whole year our students have improved in their thinking skills, knowledge about the world and nature of the globe. We teach our students all about the global education themes of peace and conflict, diversity, social justice, sustainability and interdependence. They have improved in critical thinking and know what they are, who they are, where they are from and their rights. We want our Burmese students to have the same rights as Scottish students. We want to be able to display the children’s work on the walls as your children do. If you view on the surface of our condition, you will think we are happy people. But, as you know, we are stateless people who have little opportunities for our future.
However, we need to establish this partnership because of the children; teachers, education committees and parents know that it benefits our community. It would like to describe the reasons why our partnership is so important to us:
· Our children are so happy to know that the wider world recognizes their dreadful situation.
· Knowing about the developed country and knowledge of the world.
· Children have improved speaking skills from the Scottish teachers visit to CDC school.
· The children learn new things and build strong relationships with each other through the pen pal project.
· The children have gained knowledge of Scottish life at Campie and lifestyles at home.
· Children are cooperating and working to model critical thinking by involving children in questioning activities, decision making and group work. They have known their rights and democratic elections.
· We want to observe Scottish education for the children in our community.
· If the program is discontinued, our teachers will not have the opportunity to exchange to each other’s schools. This exchange is vital for sharing the knowledge of both communities.

One of our teacher Say Hai who has a chance to visit to Campie school on 7th -20th November,2010 said “ I have learned a great deal about daily living, teaching and learning, political systems and beliefs, rights and equality from Campie school and wider community in Scotland. So it is very important for my Burmese children who didn’t have a chance to know about these. Now I can share with them, so I hope our partnership program is going to be in long-term.”
One of the children Saw Nay Htet Sann from grade 7 also said “I’m so happy for getting friends from Scotland and knowing about Scottish life and some of the political system and it also practices writing skill with my friend by foreign people from developing country. So my skills are more improve after I have had relationship with Campie’s children.”
DfID is Department for International Development between UK and many other countries, so we wish this program will run and give the opportunities especially for our stateless people and other place. On behalf of our children, staff and parents, I hope you see and recognize the benefits of this partnership and continue the Global Schools Partnerships program.( You can also see some photo at attach file)

Yours sincerely,

Saw Myoe Nyunt,
Partnership program coordinator,
Children’s Development Centre (C.D.C School),
Mae Sot,
Thailand.

UK DfID rethinks Global School Partnerships

2011-02-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

The 3 Scottish schools with UK DfID Global School Partnerships with Burmese migrant/refugee schools in Mae Sot, Thailand have learnt that UK DfID have frozen all DfID projects until the end of March 2011 to evaluate their worth. You can read about the REVIEW OF USING AID FUNDS IN THE UK TO PROMOTE AWARENESS OF GLOBAL POVERTY via this link;

http://www.dfid.gov.uk/Getting-Involved/Making-a-difference/Dev-aware-Review1/

Andrew Mitchell, MP, is UK Secretary of State for International Development and is leading this review. Andrew Mitchell visited the Thai Burma border in 2007 so some Campie children, parents and staff have written to explain the impact our Global School Partnership has had on both communities in Mae Sot and in Musselburgh. How sad it will be if Global Schools Partnerships are ended by the UK government.

You can email or write to Andrew Mitchell about the review of Global School Partnerships at

andrewmitchellmp@parliament.uk

This is my letter.....

Dear Mr Mitchell

Mae Sot, Thailand, as you know, is the home of a vast number of Burmese people feeling poverty and fear in their homeland of Burma/Myanmar. I believe you have visited the Thai Burma border so are uniquely placed as a UK minister to understand the plight of the Burmese.
As headteacher of Campie Primary School, Musselburgh, East Lothian, Scotland, I have led 3 Lothian schools to link with Burmese migrant schools in Mae Sot through DfID Global Schools Partnerships scheme over the last 5 years.

Our Global School Partnership is unique in that we are establishing links with stateless people, living in Thailand illegally, working in learning centres with no support from the Thai government. This has made the establishment of these partnerships more challenging than normal GSPs.

However, the benefit and worth of these partnerships over 5 years to both their Scottish and Burmese communities has consistently outweighed the challenges.

Children, staff, parents in The 6 communities involved in our Scottish Burmese Global School Partnerships have

1. established friendships which has given support and status to the stateless Burmese people and has given the Scottish people an understanding of a people facing greater challenges than we have ever known.

2. grown to understand the similarities and differences of our very diverse communities

3. engaged in learning projects which have taught us all about the global education themes of peace/conflict, diversity, social justice, sustainability, interdependence from the 3 year olds in our nursery to the grandparents of the families we serve.

4. allowed a total of 16 teachers to spend time in each other's schools learning about different ways of teaching, which has improved teaching and learning in all 6 schools. Staff have developed our understanding of critical thinking and emotional literacy in both communities, using skills from both communities.

If you ask the children in both communities what this means to them. (And some of our children and parents are writing to you so you will hear their voice.) The Scottish children will tell you that they never knew what life was like for refugees and that they didn't realise how lucky they are. The Burmese children are so happy to know that somebody in the wider world recognises their dreadful situation, their invisibility.

All this has been made possible through the UK DfID Global Schools Partnership Scheme.
The scheme has now frozen while you evaluate all DfID projects. On behalf of the 6 school communities involved in our Scottish Burmese Global School Partnerships, I urge you to see the bilateral value of these partnerships and continue UK Government support for them. It's an initiative the UK government should be proud of.

Yours truly

Sheila Laing,

Headteacher,

Campie Primary School

Keep on going

2011-02-02T16:35:00.000-08:00

At Campie in January, we've been learning about setting a goal and not giving up when it's hard but KEEP GOING because YOU CAN DO IT.

Today I read that Aung San Suu Kyi protesters in Egypt on Tuesday: "We’re all with you!” as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in Cairo. In a live question and answer session on BBC World Service radio, Suu Kyi said that

IT IS NECESSARY TO KEEP COOL HEADS AND STRONG HEARTS, NEVER TO LOSE HOPE AND TO KEEP ON GOING.

Wise words from a wise woman.

How are things in Mae Sot now?

2011-01-23T03:16:00.001-08:00

At Campie Parent Council this week, one of our parents asked how things are now on the Thai Burma border. You may remember that the day Say Hei arrived was the day that fighting broke out in Myawaddy, just across the river from Mae Sot, following the Burmese elections on 6 November 2010.

I just found this video from the Democratic Voice of Burma, a refugee newsagency operating from Norway on http://www.mizzima.com/ and it shows the latest news from the border. This is confirmed by our friends in Mae Sot.

However, at CDC, our friends are well and safe. They are beginning to prepare for the big end of school year exams in early March. Then they will have 2.5 months 'hot season' holiday. Campie classes are about to write to our link classes so they hear from us before their holidays.

Louise Laing leaves Mae Sot on 24 Feb 2011 to come home via a stay in Australia. However, she is going to visit our friend's family in Arakan State in Burma for a week in February first. Louise will also pick up the passports and visa results for Pirniehall's link teachers in Bangkok on the way back from Burma. If successful, those teachers hope to visit Edinburgh in March 2011.

All 3 Scottish-Burmese Global Schools Partnerships are writing reports of the last lot of funding and preparing applications for the next year, which have to be in by 1 March 2011. It's a busy time.

Campie CDC Global Schools Partnership Report

2011-01-12T14:43:00.001-08:00

3 of the teachers who went to Mae Sot worked with Say Hei from CDC School to produce a report on our visits for DfID You can find the report at www.campieschool.com. We hope you think it's worth a read!

2 Scottish Lassies dance for Dr Cynthia Maung

2010-12-26T13:29:00.000-08:00

Can you spot the 2 Scottish lassies dancing in this Karen Group for Dr Cynthia's birthday?

Well done Lisa and Louise.

A letter from Say Hai to Campie children

2010-12-18T02:34:00.000-08:00

To
Campie School Students,

How are you? I hope all of you are well and healthy with your family. How about your learning? I thank you done the great away and very well. As for us we try the best every time.

The first, I want to say you all thanks very much. When I went to you, you have a great welcome to me so, I’m very happy. I have known all of you are interesting Burma especially Aung San Su Kyi. So, I’m so proud myself for my society or country. And when I have being taught in your class, all of you are bright and clever because of your questions. And then I want to say you the fact that make me happier, is you are very interesting to our students. I have seen it when I have gone to high school. Our student also more clever than before in writing when they have relationship with you. So I know it is the result of our partner ship (or) friend ship between C.D.C and Campie School.

Finally, I want to say you Thank very much as much as you have support and help to our students. You try to learn and want to communicate to us so, I’m very happy to see you all interesting to us. I believe that we are going to get relationship better than now.

Thank very much, May God bless you all!

Best wishes,
Say Hai
C.D.C school
Mae Sot
Thailand

It's Dr Cynthia's birthday...

2010-12-06T14:01:00.001-08:00

Today CDC celebrated Dr Cynthia's birthday in big style with many groups of staff and children dancing for her. Louise Laing has been rehearsing Karen dancing and singing for 2hrs per day. You can see the celebrations here. Look carefully and you can see Say Hei with a Christmas tree. Say Hei looks really hot. How strange to see a Christmas Tree in the hot Thai sun.

Dr Cynthia's birthday presentation on PhotoPeach (double click to see this full screen).

Suu Kyi thanks Thailand for helping Burmese

2010-12-01T13:25:00.000-08:00

Aung San Suu Kyi has expressed her gratitude to Thais for helping the Burmese people.

"We would like you to know that we wish to be your good friend and good neighbor," she said in a phone interview with the Bangkok-based Thai-Asean News Network. She called on Thais to be kind to migrants and refugees from her country.

Thailand has been sheltering more than 100,000 Burmese refugees for over two decades, and about 2 million migrants from the country are currently working in Thailand. Recently, more Burmese people have fled to Thailand as government troops fight with armed ethnic groups along the border. Suu Kyi also addressed fellow citizens in Thailand and promised they would not be forgotten, and that she would do what she could to bring them back home as soon as possible.

Published Wednesday, 1 Dec, 2010 on http://www.irrawaddy.org/

And here is a lovely, lovely photo of Aung San Suu Kyi with her son Kim for the first time in 10 years. Beautiful picture of a precious moment.

Goodbye Say Hei...amazing woman!

2010-11-21T13:51:00.001-08:00

Goodbye Say Hei on PhotoPeach

So our amazing Say Hei has gone ... and I've had a weekend to think about the magic moments of Say Hei's time in Campie School. Here's some of them.

Magic Moment 1
On Friday I took Say Hei over from my house to the beach. As we went down steps to the beach, she was nervous. " I afraid." No it's OK Say Hei. I took her arm and we walked onto the sand. The sea was far out so we walked half way towards it. "Stop. I afraid. When sea comes... it comes fast or slow?" She thought the sea was going to rush in and drown us. It was so so funny and she was so excited that in her 50s, she had been to the sea for the first time in her life. What a privilege to share that moment with her. She's got the photo sadly.

Magic/Tragic Moment 2
Driving past the sea near Levenhall, she said, "My sister, you very lucky. Every day you go to school you see this beautiful sea. Every day I go to my school, I see Thai police arresting my Burmese people."

Magic Moment 3
Say Hei, Marc and Fraser from P7 and I went to meet Don Ledingham at East Lothian Headquarters. The boys impressed all of us with their knowledge and understanding of the plight of the Burmese people. Later, Say Hei said "Your students have many rights... rights to speak to the leader. My students have no rights. One day, I hope my students will have rights as yours."

Magic Moment 4
Apart from the entire ceilidh being an incredibly magic moment where parents, staff, children and visitors all mingled beautifully. In her speech (which you can see on www.campieschool.com), Say Hei said, "I never thought in my life that I would ever be in your country."

Magic Moment 5
On the last night, Fiona O' Donnell (East Lothian MP) coming to listen to Say Hei and Paw Ray tell her about their situation. Paw Ray had been in Glasgow and returned with 2 new friends who drove her back. Then there were 10 in the house and the conversation became more and more obscure. Fiona turned round and said, "Being in your house is like being on another planet!" It was a huge complement.

Magic Moment 6
Later that evening, Gaynor and I had unpacked Say Hei's suitcase 3 times trying to get everything she'd been given by Campie into her baggage allowance. Gaynor had to stay so long that we all had a chippy tea. After a long time, Seth said to Gaynor, "Mum we need to go home. We've been here 5 hours." Then he looked at his ex headteacher, remembered his lovely manners and said, "But it's been really good!"

Magic Moment 7
At Edinburgh Airport at 4.30am on Saturday, Say Hei's baggage allowance was 23 Kg. Her bag weighed in at 30 Kg and the second bag that Campie were paying for was 7 Kg. So Gaynor and I unpacked her bag, moving Campie's letters for CDC and Louise Laing's Heinz tomato soup into the little bag. The queue behind us were not impressed but we were giggling our heads off. And surely this has to be the most obscure but effective example of excellence in a headteacher and the chair of a Parent Council working together! I mean 4am on a Saturday morning! (although that is why neither of us made it to the Musselburgh Community Planning event at 10am. Sorry, folks.)

So many others, Sarah Boyack showing the Scottish Parliament, watching her horror as we ate ice cream, visiting our Burmese refugee student friends at Newbattle Abbey College, waking up to the smell of Burmese breakfast cooking, Campie children saying bye to Say Hei and much more.

Say Hei, you came and gave us so much. Thank you Amazing Lady.

Sheila Laing

If you have any magic Say Hei moments yourself, put them in a comment or send them to us and we'll blog them. slaing@campie.elcschool.org.uk

Pudsey and Ceilidh

2010-11-18T16:30:00.001-08:00

Today Pudsey came to Campie and surprised the children ... and Say Hei and Paw Ray.

Tonight we had a brilliant ceilidh for Say Hei and Paw Ray and our friends.

Pudsy and Ceilidh on PhotoPeach

A row from Louise

2010-11-18T08:53:00.000-08:00

Just got a huge row from Louise for not telling her that the photos of Say Hei are on the Campie School website on www.campieschool.com.

Sorry, if you go to Campie School website and click on Burma on the right hand side, you will see all the posts about Burma and Say Hei. I think I better put them on here too.... but right now I am going to the Scottish Burma Ceilidh at Campie Primary School at 7pm. Watch this space, photos to follow.

Sheila

News from Waley, Thailand.

2010-11-17T15:21:00.000-08:00

Report from a friend in Thailand, "All the refugees in Waley who came as a result of fighting on Sunday night were sent back by the Thai authorities at 9 am this morning." The refugees did not want to return because they were frightened and were forced to go back to Burma against their will. This is very distressing.

Go back to Burma!

2010-11-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

On the Irawaddy we read, "The Thai army has announced that it will not allow Burmese villagers to cross the border again if hostilities resume. Observers say this policy is a result of a request by the Burmese government to the Thais to deny shelter to Burmese refugees, and a Burmese demand that the Thai authorities pay 100,000 baht (US $3,000) compensation for any Burmese citizen killed on Thai soil."

Burmese Headteachers visit to Scottish Parliament

2010-11-15T23:23:00.000-08:00

Today, Say Hei and Paw Ray visited the Scottish Parliament. Sarah Boyack, MSP and BEST trustee (Burma Educational Scholarship Trust) showed us round and gave us an explanation of how the Parliament works. She spoke about the transparency and accountability of the Scottish Parliament and of its commitment to equality. Say Hei and Paw Ray were very impressed but so sad because Burma is exactly the opposit of this, as the recent elections in Burma show.
(PS Our headteachers are actually Karen ethnic group not Burmese.)

More fighting on the Thai Burma border

2010-11-15T15:46:00.001-08:00

Today our Karen headteachers heard that there is more fighting on the border and more people are running away into Thailand. Many of the local Burmese and Karen people and organisations are trying to help them even though the Thai authorities want the new refugees to return to Burma. The situation is very tense and fearful.

We read on www.irrawaddy.org that...

"...More than 400 villagers fled late on Sunday night from the town of Valley, which straddles the Thai-Burmese border, following a resumption of hostilities between Burmese government forces and breakaway Brigade 5 of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), according to Thai authorities.

We are all so joyful at Aung San Suu Kyi's freedom and it's amazing to hear her dignified and courageous speeches. However, let's keep remembering the poor Burmese and Karen people who struggle every day to survive in poverty, hunger and fear.

Fear behind the celebrations

2010-11-14T09:15:00.000-08:00

We have joined in with the joy in Burma and Mae Sot at Aung San Suu Kyi's release. However, the reality of the fear Burmese and Karen people live with on a daily basis, hit home to us on Saturday.

We received this report from a good and reliable friend in Mae Sot.

In the meantime, the situation here is still really bad. Now the Thais really don't want any refugees here, they are forcibly sending people back. Yesterday there was reports of large numbers of people strung out along the river banks of Burma unable to cross but fearful of being in Burma so just hiding out under trees along the river bank. The Thai authorities are blocking aid. People who return are being recruited as porters, men, women and children. The SPDC (Burmese Army) has brought in thousands more troops to the area, and are determined to wipe out any opposition. Fighting is breaking out, lots more landmines have been laid and people are on the move in desperate need of safety.

We are sending out food, blankets, water, hygiene kits, maternity kits and baby kits. There are women close to delivery, brand new babies, elderly and disabled included of course in these populations. The Thais are not allowing international NGOs access to sites so everyone is relying on us to get stuff to the right people. "us" is merely a community network of Burmese people, healthworkers, monks, teachers, market people, activists etc.........using the networks to get people what they need. The whole Burmese community in Thailand has opened up their doors and is taking care of people - in villages three or four families are staying with
each village house. They are not relatives of each other - just people are looking after each others. Villagers may be looking after people at great personal risk since in some villages, the authorities have announced that anyone caught harboring refugees will be arrested.

So in the midst of the jubliation that Aung San Suu Kyi is free, let's help out our friends who are giving so much to help those in fear and remember there are still 2200 political prisoners in Burma's jails.

Saturday Sightseeing and Shopping!

2010-11-13T14:03:00.000-08:00

Say Hei Sightseeing on PhotoPeach

Some fresh, windy Scottish air was in store for our Burmese teacher Say Hei today. We picked her up bright and early at Sheila's house and whisked her off in a whirlwind tour of East Lothian and Edinburgh.
We fitted in Gullane bents - to watch the brave (or crazy) kite surfers - , Direlton and Tantallon Castles - from the outside, North Berwick beach, Phantassie Dovocot and Preston Mill, Asda, Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh Castle and Saint Giles Cathedral!!!
Wow what a day! Can't say we don't know how to treat our visitors. If Say Hei does not sleep soundly tonight I shall eat my hat!

She's free at last!

2010-11-13T03:28:00.000-08:00

At 11am (UK time), Saturday 13 November 2010, Aung San Suu Kyi has been released after a total of 15 years and 20 days. She said to the huge crowd of people outside her house, "We must work together in unity to achieve her goal." She's gone back inside her house but will speak to the people at 12 tomorrow (5am UK time) from her party's headquarters - the National League of Democracy.

Burma Campaign UK has released this statement, "Burma Campaign UK today welcomed the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, but warned that the release should not be interpreted as a sign that democratic reform is on the way. Burma Campaign UK also called for the immediate release of 2,202 political prisoners who remain in detention."

The Scotsman on Friday, The Times on Saturday

2010-11-12T14:08:00.000-08:00

Today, Say Hei was on page 24 of The Scotsman newspaper, talking about the current situation in Mae Sot. Gaynor Allen, Campie Parent Council Chair, wrote the article and we really want to thank you Gaynor for using your skill and talent to share Say Hei's story with the world. After Nicky Orr, another Campie mum tweeted Gordon and Sarah Brown last week, Gaynor's also tapping on Gordon Brown's door but he's not answered.... yet! She's a persistent woman mind, so you never know...
http://www.scotsman.com/world/Teacher-fears-for-school-hit.6622788.jp

Tomorrow The Times are doing a feature on our Burmese friends too so look out for that.

Today, Say Hei spent time talking to a group of Campie parents about her Karen people and about the situation in Burma and in CDC School. She had hoped her translator, Khaing, would be available but she managed just fine without him. Her English has amazed us this trip. She can say most of the things she wants to say and she is becoming really confident to speak to people.

She spent the day in P1 with Teacher Kat and in P5 with Mrs Polley. You can see those photos on http://www.campieschool.com/. Then tonight teachers from Campie and Forthview with some Campie parents enjoyed a meal with Say Hei and with Ko Htike and Win Maung Thein, our Burmese student friends from Newbattle Abbey College. It was lovely to relax though Say Hei was very sleepy. The TV was on in the Thai restaurant and our noisy table went very quiet when BBC24 put on a feature about Aung San Suu Kyi. It showed Zoya Phan of Burma Campaign UK and Headteacher Paw Ray was staying with Zoya in London tonight. She returns to Scotland tomorrow, having had a busy but rewarding trip to London to secure funding for the dry food programme to feed the migrant children.

We had a false alarm at Campie today. Ms Laing got a text that Aung San Suu Kyi had been released at 10am UK time. It was from a very good source so she ran into the P1 open plan area, shouting excitedly to Sey Hei and the children that ASSK had been released. The P1 children began to clap, which was just beautiful. Later we found out that ASSK was still not released.

Tonight Ko Htike explained (and we also read this in the Guardian) that her release papers were served but there were conditions restricting her movements and restricting who she could speak to, so Aung San Suu Kyi refused to leave her home. We await tomorrow's events with great interest, excitement and concern.

Tomorrow, Teachers Kat, Alicia and Hannah are taking Say Heh shopping and sightseeing in Edinburgh. Pat Boone records, christmas cards and board games for her boarding house students are on Say Hei's shopping list. Ms Laing's staying in bed...ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Will Aung San Suu Kyi be released today?

2010-11-11T23:44:00.000-08:00

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi will apparently be set free on Friday. Burmese authorities entered Suu Kyi’s lakeside house on University Avenue at 12 p.m., reportedly to deliver a release warrant, according local journalists who are waiting outside her compound. “Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and authorities seemed to be talking in the house after the release warrant was read and she is likely to come out of the compound at 4:00 pm,” said a reporter outside her residence. “Her party (NLD) invited journalists in Rangoon for a press conference at 5 p.m

Paw Ray in London and Say Hei in Wallyford

2010-11-11T14:15:00.000-08:00

Andrew Scadding of Thai Children's Trust sent this letter that Paw Ray had published in The Times today. Paw Ray has been very busy in London speaking to organisations that might help Burmese migrant children in Mae Sot. She's also met up with some dear Karen friends that she has not seen for years, Zoya Phan and another young woman.

Say Hei went to Wallyford Primary School today to meet Teacher Hannah. Her P4 class gave Say Hei a lovely welcome and tour of their school. They were so fast at picking up information about Burma. Thank you Wallyford.

Gaynor Allen is Chair of Campie Parent Council and also a journalist. She has interviewed Say Hei and sent an article to The Times and The Scotsman so keep your eyes open for this.

Aung San Suu Kyi update

2010-11-11T00:20:00.001-08:00

Kim Aris, the younger son of Aung San Suu Kyi, reportedly applies for a visa to visit his mother in Rangoon.

Wednesday in Mae Sot

2010-11-10T15:06:00.000-08:00

The news we hear today is that the Burmese army have retaken Myawaddy and the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army have retreated to the outskirts of Myawaddy. The Thai army are sending the people back to Myawaddy but many people are afraid to return. http://www.irrawaddy.org/ reports,

'All Refugees Returned to Myawaddy
MAE SOT — All refugees who did not return to Myawaddy on Tuesday were sent back by Thai authorities Wednesday morning. Thai authorities said the process came after agreement was reached with Burmese counterparts led by Col Khin Maung Htay. But social workers here said some refugees are still hiding in rice fields along the Moei river. In Myawaddy, authorities collected a list of those who fled to Thailand during the fighting. One Burmese official in the town said the order to do so came from the regional military command.'

Another report said, “The town was silent when we went back this morning, but there were soldiers searching for explosive devices. Then we heard the soldiers wanted porters, so we come back to the Thai side,” said Han Sein (not his real name), a retire civil servant from Myawaddy, speaking to The Irrawaddy on the bank of the Moei River, which separates Thailand and Burma.
“I saw that some of the shops—particularly the phone shops—had been looted, but I have no idea who did it,” he said, adding that this was the worst incident he had experienced since moving to Myawaddy in 1992.
While many local residents have returned to the town to check their property, many others say they are still too worried about their personal safety to remain there.
“After I got back to my house, I cooked some rice. Then I saw that some people were running away to escape being recruited as porters, so I also came back to Thailand,” said Daw Yee, 74. “I am worried about my home, but right now, safety is my main concern.”
Many who have returned to the Thai side of the border have taken shelter in local monasteries or in houses near the river. Others are said to be hiding in the woods around the Thai border town of Mae Sot.
“I feel the situation in the town is still uncertain. That's why I decided to come to Thailand this morning,” said Ba Maung, 84, who was taken to the Mao Tao clinic in Mae Sot after he arrived on the Thai side. “I was at a monastery during the fighting on Monday.”
Thai soldiers at the Thai-Burmese Friendship Bridge between Mae Sot and Myawaddy said they could understand why the refugees were nervous. “The opposite side of the river is too quiet. It's not normal. Something could happen at anytime,” said one Thai sergeant at the bridge.
However, local authorities in Mae Sot are struggling to deal with the influx of thousands of refugees and are eager to see the situation return to normal as quickly as possible. Thai officials and NGO workers said there were only 13 toilets for about 20,000 refugees who arrived on Monday and Tuesday.

The Mae Tao Clinic have launched an appeal to support the efforts to feed and house and help the refugees from Myawaddy. There are many remaining in Mae Sot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCL_cXyf3yI

For details of Say Hei's day in Campie, see Campie website on http://www.campieschool.com/

Say Hei's Tuesday in Scotland

2010-11-09T12:16:00.000-08:00

Say Hei and Paw Ray went to bed on Monday at 8pm. They were so tired but they woke up at 2am! So at 5am, they were in the Headteacher's kitchen cooking rice and chicken. Ms Laing snored through it all!

Say Hei's Tuesday in Campie on PhotoPeach

Paw Ray went to London today to speak to important people about helping the Burmese and Karen families living in Thailand. So Say Hei came to Campie for the first time.

Ms Laing and Say Hei took all morning to meet 14 of Campie's 18 classes. Say Hei loved the bright classrooms and could not believe that in P2 the children had 5 jotters for their work. In CDC, they only have 1. In CDC the children sit on benches and each class has 42 children so the children are squashed together on the benches.

In the afternoon, you can see Khaing Maung Maung came to assemblies to interpret for Say Hei. P4-7 listened superbly as they always do when they hear about Burma. Khaing, Say Hei and Ms Laing told them about the Karen and Burmese armies fighting in Myawaddy, near Mae Sot. We are glad that Say Hei's boarding house girls are all safe and living in CDC just now. She told us they've been cooking food for the new refugees.

What impressed Say Hei most was the excellent questions Campie children asked her. Some were so difficult to answer but Khaing helped us in the afternoon. Questions like...

Q. Do you have a pet?
Q. How many children do you have?
Q. Do you like Burma or Thailand best?
Q. Do you think in Burmese or English, Khaing?
Q. Do the children play football?
Q Does anyone in Burma make a sacrifice for others?
Q. Why did you come to Thailand?
Q Did the soldiers see you come to Thailand?
Q Were you afraid?
Q. How many students in your school?
Q. When did the trouble start in Burma?
Q. Would you fight the soldiers?
Q. When will the fighting stop?
Q. Are you cold?
Q. Are you tired?
Q What writing do children do in CDC?

and on and on and on and .... just brilliant... well done Campie kids.

Trouble in Myawaddy

2010-11-08T09:38:00.001-08:00

Say Hei and Paw Ray woke this morning to very worrying news from Mae Sot. Overnight there had been fighting in Myawaddy, just across the river and some crossfire had hit some Thai people on the Mae Sot side.

CDC school and the other migrant schools have been asked to close by the Thai Police to keep everyone safe. CDC tried to evacuate Say Hei's boarding house but the boarding house is right on the road to the bridge so the Thai Police wouldn't let people out. However Say Hei spoke to teacher Myo Nyunt and was satisfied that all her boarders were safe.

After Dr Cynthia told the volunteers the school was closed, Louise went to see if she could help with the stream of people fleeing into Mae Sot. The police were directing them to a big field near the bus station, near CDC school and Mae Tao Clinic.

Louise told me, "People from Myawaddy were all just sitting there on bits of cardboard in this huge field. They'd run away from Burma across the river with nothing and they were sat there feeding their babies. They were happy to be out of Myawaddy and glad to have somewhere to camp with their families. One woman was sitting wanting to go into the queue for food but she couldn't go because there was nobody to watch her baby. She told me she was a teacher in Myawaddy but here she was sitting in a field with nothing. It was mayhem. I helped by handing out water to people. The Thai police were being very kind to the people and the Red Cross were giving them food and water. I felt so horrible to leave to go home. Tonight it will be cold, about 16 degrees and they are all sitting in that field with no shelter."

She's written more on www.ilovemaesot.blogspot.com

From Mae Sot to Edinburgh - they did it!

2010-11-07T11:43:00.000-08:00

4pm on Sunday 7 November 2010 was a wonderful moment. Say Hei and Paw Ray came through the International Arrival door, exhausted but safe. I was getting quite worried because their flight landed at 3.35pm but they weren't coming through the arrival door. That was because customs opened their suitcases and checked everything. Makes you cross doesn't it?

But they are here and we are so happy to have them with us. It was 4 degrees centigrade outside so we had the heating on full blast and our house was like toast. All the Scots in the house were sweating but Paw Ray still had her big coat on! I think they're OK now though.

We had a lovely welcome party for them. Gaynor (Chair of Campie Parent Council) and her family were here, Fiona, Beth and Gavin from Forthview and Alastair whose mum is Burmese. We enjoyed a buffet and Paw Ray and Say Hei both managed to eat it.

Of course, today is Election Day in Burma so we quickly found the Irrawaddy website in Burmese so they could catch up on the news. The Election is over, the results unknown except we all know what they will be. However, news from our friends that the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army have seized power from the Burmese Army in Myawaddy, just over the bridge from Mae Sot. Follow this news on http://www.irrawaddy.org/.

They've had a shower now and they're both tucked up in bed at 7.30pm. Tomorrow They will both go to Forthview, taking greetings from Thazin. Then on Tuesday, Paw Ray is going to London to speak to groups about the need on the border for migrant Burmese and Karen children. Say Hei will be going to Campie and EVERYONE is very excited for that.

Journey is going well

2010-11-06T11:43:00.000-07:00

I just spoke to Say Hei and Paw Ray on the phone. They are about to board the plane in Bangkok and have safely got through all the checkpoints. They sound happy and excited and a bit worried about how cold it will be. We'll be meeting them tomorrow at 3.35pm in Edinburgh Airport. Just amazing.

One of our lovely Campie mums went out today and organised 2 whole bags of essential clothing for living in Scotland. So so kind ... and the labels she made said,

"Welcome to our friends from Burma with much love from your Campie friends. x"

What a lovely start. Thank you Campie mum. :)

Say Hei comes, An Election in Burma

2010-11-05T15:18:00.000-07:00

At last, Say Hei will arrive in Scotland on Sunday 7 November at 3.30pm. She will be in Campie on Tuesday, or perhaps Monday. The children are all very excited to meet her and are pretty good at the Burmese greeting. Minglaba! Say Hei hasn’t got any shoes. She only wears sandals so we’re guessing what size she is so we can take some shoes to the airport for her. Gaynor’s family and Ms Laing and a Burmese lady called Khin are going to meet Say Hei and her friend Paw Ray, who is travelling with her.

On Saturday, the Campie teachers who went to Burma and 6 P7s are going to Glasgow to speak at Amnesty International’s Scottish Conference about Burma. Ko Htike and Win Maung Thein are going with us. They are Burmese refugee students at Newbattle Abbey College, Dalkeith so the P7s will enjoy quizzing them on the train.

It’s a very important weekend for the Burmese people. The first elections since 1990 are on Sunday, the day Say Hei and Paw Ray arrive in Scotland. Last time Aung San Suu Kyi won the elections. This time, her party are not allowed to be elected. So the election is not as fair as the election Campie children have voted in this week. Every child from P2- 6 has voted in the Children’s Vote run by Tam Baillie. Nobody told Campie children what to vote for. Burma is very different. So listen to the news children and listen out for what happens in Burma this weekend.

On 13 November, Aung San Suu Kyi may be freed so listen out for that too. Say Hei and Paw Ray will be finding out what’s really going on in Burma and they will tell us.
So have a safe journey Sey Hei. We are all thinking about you. You are very brave, just like Aung San Suu Kyi.

Visa APPROVED!

2010-10-13T14:27:00.000-07:00

Say Hei's visa has been approved. This amazing news came this afternoon. However, none of the other 5 people who were coming over, including Dr Cynthia Maung, have had their visa applications for UK turned down. Say Hei is frightened to travel alone so, I understand, she is waiting until the others re-apply before coming over. She's able to come as soon as it suits now though. A huge thank you to Fiona O'Donnell, East Lothian MP for her support. :)

Run for Burma

2010-10-09T12:48:00.001-07:00

Today about 18 staff from Campie, Forthview and Pirniehall ran for Burma in Inverleith Park, Edinburgh. Some of the money we raised went to Partners UK. Campie's money is going to the CDC boarding houses. Well done, everyone.

Say Hei's 2nd visa attempt....

2010-10-08T10:23:00.000-07:00

Say Hei went to Bangkok almost 2 weeks ago to apply for a second time for a UK visa so she can visit Campie in November 2010. We've just heard the application is ready to be collected but we don't know if the visa has been granted or denied. Louise Laing is going to go to Bangkok on Sunday to collect the visa on Monday. Fingers and everything else crossed!

Say Hei applies for UK visa again

2010-09-28T14:42:00.000-07:00

Tonight, as I write, Say Hei is travelling on another minibus from Mae Sot to Bangkok to apply for a UK visa for the second time. We have prepared stronger evidence to support her application from both schools. Our MP, Fiona O' Donnell, has given her support once more, as have the Thai Ministry of Education.

You can see Say Hei and one of her daughters and her adopted son here in this photo with my daughter Louise and I.

So I'm hoping and praying that she has a safe journey as I know she'll be feeling nervous and that this application for a UK visa will be successful. If it is, Say Hei will be coming to Campie School at the end of October 2010 for a few weeks. Let's all hope .......

Sheila Laing

CDC and Campie in the paper...

2010-09-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

Hannah Alcock wrote to the local press about the link between our Scottish school and the Burmese school. Read about the article in the East Lothian Courier here....

http://www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/musselburgh/articles/2010/09/23/405432-lifechanging-trip-to-thailand-/

Campie staff learn more about Burma

2010-08-16T13:19:00.000-07:00

Summer is over in Scotland - well, the staff all returned from their holidays for 3 In Service training days at Campie.

This morning Katherine Macnaughton and Alicia Macfarlane led Campie staff in learning about CDC School and about the lives of the Burmese and Karen students and staff. They began by putting 6 photos from their visit to Mae Sot on 7 tables and the staff had to go around and record their impressions of the photos. This was cleverly based on a session SCOTDEC ran at Campie earlier this year, where they used photos to challenge stereotypes. And what were the staff saying about the photos?
'The children look so happy and well cared for.'
'I can't believe the clinic has so many landmine victims and they are all so young.'
'Is that school milk they're drinking?'
'What are they selling ice cream in school for?'
'Such cute children.'
'The nursery has pictures on the walls but the school is so bare.'
'64 Burmese schools in Mae Sot? I thought CDC was the only one!'

Each table then read a CDC child's story of how they came to be in Thailand from Burma, which provoked strong feelings of awe at the resilience of the Burmese people but concern at the danger they live in on the Border.

Finally, we thought about learning projects that Campie and CDC could embark on together in our Global Schools Partnership. We'll share them with Say Hei if she ever gets a UK visa!

A brilliant learning session with everyone involved, asking questions and impressed with how much Alicia and Katherine have learned in such a short time. Thank you Alicia and Katherine - and Hannah who planned the session with them but has now moved to work at Wallyford Primary School.

VISAS REJECTED BY UK IMMIGRATION

2010-08-13T03:46:00.000-07:00

We have all been shocked and disappointed today because the 3 visas to come to UK were all REJECTED by UK Immigration. The teachers has misunderstood the text that said the passports could be collected to mean the visas had been approved. So our last blog posting was wrong.

The teachers are very distressed and upset. At this moment, Friday at 11am UK time, Dr Cynthia has called a meeting to discuss the way forward for the Burma:Scotland Global School Partnerships.

This is dreadful news. Watch this space, we'll keep you posted.....

GOT THEIR VISAS!

2010-08-07T06:23:00.000-07:00

Miraculously, after all that hard work by so many people, Say Hei, Pho Cho and Nee Shar got their visas to travel to the UK. Well, when I say 'got, what I mean is someone needs to travel to Bangkok to collect the visas but they are approved and ready. Louise was going to collect them but she's not well enough so Lisa is sorting it out. This is fantastic news.

PS Louise is now out of hospital and recuperating at home in Homestay.

Louise is ill

2010-08-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

Many of you have written to say that you are now following Louise Laing's blog. Louise is Ms Laing's daughter and she is living in Mae Sot for about a year, helping and teaching at CDC Nursery and now also at Say Ta Nar School.

Louise has become quite ill with dengue fever and was admitted to hospital today. You can read more on her blog...

www.ilovemaesot.blogspot.com

Rainy Season...

2010-08-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

Coming back to Scotland, it's clear you've had a bit of a rainy season this summer. On the Thai Burma border, the rainy season has had much less rain than usual. The rice in the paddy fields is suffering and there are fears for crops. But when it rains, it rains... usually very suddenly and usually as we are out on our bikes. Here you can see what happens when the rain starts lashing down as the children are leaving school. Ugh!

CDC Boarding House Part 2 - Thank you Amber!

2010-08-02T14:46:00.001-07:00

The Burmese and Karen people are the most generous hosts and they do love to feed visitors lots and lots of lovely Karen or Burmese food. Here you see the lovely spread they set out for us. They'd gone to lots of trouble to cater for our western tastes with battered chicken, plain rice and an eggy dish..... the girls had had a much plainer meal than us so we felt very guilty that they had cooked special food for us.
Sheila's usual agonising over eating food she's scared of!

Alicia sets Sheila a good example and has a go at everything....

After hearing about Burma from Ms Laing in Assembly, Amber Reilly in P7 determined to do what she could to help the Burmese children. She also spoke to Campie parents with Ms Laing about Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma.

P7 had their official charity for the year but Amber got her class to save up pennies throughout the year for the Burmese children. All in all, Amber and her friend Marley gathered in £80. On top of this a Campie parent had given us £50 so we put this together. At the end of the meal we gave Say Hei 3000 baht for her girls' boarding house and we gave Myo Nyunt 3000 baht for his boys' boarding house. They were both very happy to have this extra money to spend on the children. They asked us to say thank you very much Amber and Say Hei looks forward to thanking you when she comes to Campie.

We left the boarding house wondering if Campie could do more to help the boarding houses...

Living in a CDC Boarding House Part 1

2010-08-02T14:16:00.000-07:00

CDC school has 520 boarders, children and young people whose parents have died in Burma or whose parents have sent them to Thailand to avoid hunger and worse or to get education. It's a mammoth task to find the funding to care for these children and young people. CDC seeks funding from many places to care for the children in large boarding houses. The CDC teachers live in the boarding houses, caring for the children after teaching them all day. Say Hei is the housemistress of a boarding house for 80 girls and young ladies. She invited us to the boarding house. This is the view from the 3rd floor of the 3 storey boarding house.
Say Hei and Sheila Laing with their daughters and with Say Hei's adopted son. Say Hei runs a very loving and nurturing boarding house. Pi Say Hei... grandmother Say Hei is what the girls call her. These girls cannot leave this house except to go to school. They can't go out to play as they are at risk of being arrested. They live their lives in this home and in school.

The girls are relaxing on a Friday evening, sitting about in groups having a blether....

Below you can see how much space each girl has to sleep in. They sleep side by side on their mats. Their bedding and mats are rolled up daily. Not much privacy or personal space here.

Each girl has a box for her personal possessions. Imagine girls, getting all your possessions in one box. Despite such little space, the girls take great care over their appearance and their belongings and they always look smart and well turned out.

Everyone's shoes are lined up, ready for going out. Shoes are taken off in Burmese homes.

There are toilets on each floor. Miss MacNaughton used this toilet, but then Miss MacNaughton used every toilet we passed!

All the girls are on a rota to clean, cook and care for their home.

Campie staff on the Thai Burma border

2010-08-02T08:50:00.000-07:00

Above is my favourite photo of Alicia MacFarlane on the border. She is with Myo Nyunt, who was the excellent teacher who was Alicia and Hannah's interpreter. He's wearing his special Friday clothes.

Below is a Campie staff meeting right at the river that divides Thailand and Burma. We'd just been refused permission to travel to Burma because the border had been closed 'because of a problem Burma have in their country'. We went to the market on the border and had a coke in one of the cafes, which turned into such a boring Campie staff meeting that Geoff wandered off to take our photo!

Back home

2010-07-30T02:46:00.000-07:00

Safely home to the clartiest kitchen in Scotland. Got the bleach out and scrubbing hard. Got off the plane in Edinburgh, went to the loo and met Zoe Porter and her daughters and mum! Zoe's been great at commenting on the blog and keeping up with us so that was just lovely. She's off to Bulgaria and I am off to detoxify my kitchen and phone Louise.

Louise has been finding it really hard to be left in Mae Sot by her mother so if you want to keep up with the situation for the Burmese and Karen people in Mae Sot, follow her blog and send her a wee encouraging comment at www.ilovemaesot.blogspot.com.

Sheila

Farewell Assembly at CDC

2010-07-23T20:27:00.000-07:00

It was our last morning at CDC and we had come to take assembly to make sure every child in CDC Primary knew what we'd been up to and what the partnership was all about. We got up at 6am to make sure we were there for the 8.30am start... in true Burmese style, it started at 9am!

The primary school children lined up on their balconies to come over to the big assembly hall. Here you can see the primary school. The secondary school has an identical building facing this one and they also have a third building behind the assembly hall. CDC building was built to Thai standards by Child's Dream. One of the conditions of the building is that it is not used for a boarding house so CDC have boarding houses scattered around Mae Sot.

The primary children walk to the assembly hall, arms folded in single file. CDC children wear a special green uniform on a Friday. The rest of the week it's lilac and navy.

It takes quite a long time to get the 560 primary pupils out of their building into the assembly hall. As each child passes us teachers, they bow their heads out of respect to us. Imagine that in Scotland! Take note of the flagpole behind the children.

The primary goes from Kindergarten to Grade 6 but Alicia and Hannah worked with Grade 6 and Grade 7 so Grade 7 got to come too today. The guy in red was the only person who could get the CD player and mike to work. I guess he's a kind of Burmese Linda Borthwick (Campie wonderwoman) and just like her, he keeps vanishing just when it all goes wrong and everybody runs round shouting for him. Just like Linda!

Every day the Burmese and Karen schools have to sing the Thai National Anthem and raise the Thai flag. So daily all 1300 people on the campus gather on the balconies, stand facing the flag and sing the national song as pupils raise the flag, followed by a 2 minute silence. This is because the Thai government want the Burmese schools, or learning centres as the Thais say they must be called, to assimilate into Thai culture and become Thai. Of course the Burmese and Karen people are mostly desperate to return to Burma so this is a huge conflict, not just as the flag is raised but in every aspect of their daily lives.

The Burmese and Karen people accept this as part of the cost of living in another land. As an outsider, I find the song and the flag raising deeply disturbing as it encapsulates the unbearableness of being a refugee with no rights to exercise your own culture. It unleashes a real clash of emotions - I feel stirred by the sound of 1300 people singing a stirring anthem, I feel angry that the Burmese people cannot be in their own place and are made to bow to another culture. This is heightened at CDC because look at the mountains... that's Burma. So very close but so very far away.... However, I recognise that my feelings of dissonance are a luxury that these refugee and migrant people cannot afford to have. They need to survive and to survive, this is something they need to accept.

Above you can see Say Hei, the Head of the Primary School introducing us to the assembly. The children call her Pi Say Hei, which means grandmother. She is the most nurturing, wise and gentle woman you could find and her experience and bearing bring her great respect in the CDC community. She runs a boarding house for 80 girls as well as having 4 daughters and an adopted son. We are SO HONOURED to be welcoming her to Campie.

Below we all greet each other with Minglaba!

And we sing, I FEEL GOOD by Fischy Music, which transcends all cultural barriers. Thanks Stephen Fischbacher once again for the music that we use so much here on the Thai Burma border. It's a novelty for the children to sing a fun song in assembly and people stream out of secondary classes to watch from the other buildings. We're even observed by a dog on the roof of the other building! Below you can see Myo Nyu, who was the interpreter for Hannah and Alicia. He is an outstanding teacher and learner and they have so many funny and amazing stories to tell about working with him. He's a very stylish guy and is wearing his take on traditional Karen clothing in the photo. We spent most of the week calling him various versions of his name. Num num, myoo myoo, no no, nweh nweh.... He took it all in good style and told my daughter Louise that he enjoyed working with Alicia and Alcock!

At the end of Assembly, a procession of pupils came forward to give each of us a Karen tunic that they had made by hand for us, then another procession gave us a brooch and finally they gave us a beautiful mosaic picture of their traditional culture for Campie's entrance hall. Alicia took it back to Scotland so come to Campie for a look, folks. We were all moved and very emotional. Alicia is a bit of a basket case when it comes to being moved it has to be said but we were all as bad as her this time! Interesting what you learn about your staff far from home!

And then it was time to say goodbye to the children as they left the hall to go back to class with hugs and smiles and 'Thank you teeecher'.

These people just fill our hearts with love and we have all been so totally privileged to spend this week with them. They deserve so so much more than life and the Burmese junta allow them to have just now. When will it change?

Thank you CDC, Mahn Shwe Hnin - headteacher, Pi Sei Hei and all her teachers and staff, Lisa Houston and Dr Cynthia Maung for your gracious hospitality and kindness to us and for embracing our partnership.

Buddha Day

2010-07-22T19:22:00.000-07:00

Today the schools are having special celebrations for the Buddhist Lent Festival that starts on Monday. Schools are closed on Monday and Tuesday so today they will celebrate in school. Yesterday we saw some of the preparations being made. The teachers and students had folded and pinned material to make this gorgeous display.

Candles and flowers were made into beautiful decorations to go on the display. Offerings will also be placed on the display and then this will all be given to Buddhist monks who are about to observe a 3 month period of Lent. Well that's what we've understood by what we've been told.

The display above is made up from lots of small hanging candles intertwined with flowers, hanging around a huge candle.

This display below is made by decorating another huge candle.

To Bangkok for visas

2010-07-22T04:27:00.000-07:00

We left Mae Sot on Tuesday 20th July at midnight in a minibus we had hired to ensure safe passage to Bangkok. It's very hard for Burmese/Karen people to travel around Thailand, even with a valid passport, which everyone had. The white foreigner (Ms Laing!) being with them apparently gave them extra protection. It didn't feel like it at the 5 checkpoints we passed on the way out of Mae Sot. At one checkpoint, the soldier opened up the back of the van, shone his torch in our faces, inspected our passports then proceeded to shine his torch under each seat in the back of the minibus to make sure we weren't hoarding any Burmese people. I am a white foreigner with a valid UK passport and despite all that, I found these soldiers very intimidating. However our valid passports got us through and we arrived in Bangkok at 6am, having stopped at some mosquito filled toilets on the way. It's amazing how quickly you can use a toilet that's full of mosquitoes!

At our 6 am stop in Bangkok, our Thai driver made it clear he had no idea where we were going in Bangkok. Nightmare! We had to phone a helpful friend at 6am to ask her to tell the driver in Thai where we were going. He then drove into Bangkok, got stopped and pulled over by police... we don't know why... and eventually at 7.45am, he astounded me totally by pulling up in front of the UK Visa handling centre. I was convinced we'd come all that way for nothing. We went in and sat in the queue. The centre opens at 8.30am but agents are already there very early and there were about 20 folk in front of us. Our 3 Burmese teachers were very tense and worried about applying for their visas. Everything is done in Thai, which didn't help at all. I'd naively hoped British people might be managing this process. Eventually at 8.30am, the Visa place opened and our teachers were each given a ticket and had to go in to the centre on their own. I had to wait outside. I was very worried about them, particularly as the place was full of wealthy Thai people, flashing money at agents. So many Gucci bags on display! And our poor wee teachers sitting in bewilderment amongst them. I felt quite angry because it seemed to me that once again, the wealthy could buy their way to visas and the poor Burmese, who deserved the visas might be made to wait at the back of the queue. Maybe I was wrong ... who can tell....

After 2 hours, all 3 teachers came out smiling and relieved. 'We did it. We had all the right documents, we had the right bank cheques. They liked our letters of recommendation from UK MPs and DfID Global Partnerships. They took our passports and gave us receipts.' THEY WERE SO SO HAPPY. A stapler was pulled from their bag to staple and organise their receipts. Well done teachers.

They are also so very, very grateful to everyone in Scotland who helped raise the extra money we needed to pay for passports, visas, the minibus etc. They bow and thank me all the time so please know that all that marathon running/working, sponsored walks, all the cakes you baked and ate at Campie, have done so much good and are so immensely appreciated. Thank you all, say our 3 teachers, bowing their heads humbly. Yes, it makes you want to greet..... we do nothing compared to how they selflessly live their lives. We eventually arrived home on Wednesday night at 7pm in Mae Sot. Neeshar had to get up at 5am to cook the food for the 120 pupils at her school the next day. This is how they live......

On the way back, the driver stopped at the market to let us shop. I passed on that one! It wasn't hard to resist the pork, pictured above or the bags of fierce looking chillies at 20 bhat a bag. Say Hei bought them as a gift for her daughter.

We had left Pho Cho in Bangkok... not by mistake.... he is attending an International Labour Organisation about Child Labour for 2 days. I can't wait for Scottish friends to meet this man. He is so dedicated to striving to protect his children and his people. What a day and a half that was.

Sheila

Trailblazer in Burmese Education

2010-07-21T23:34:00.000-07:00

One of the names we have heard time and again through discussion with teachers in Mae Sot, is Dr. Thein Lwin. Sheila knows Thein Lwin and arranged what was a facinating and informative meeting for us, to find out more about his Critical Thinking movement in Burmese education. Providing training for teachers in Burmese migrant schools and refugee camps, the movement includes active learning and skills which encourage children to be able to think for themselves.
Unable to return to Burma for being politically active, Thein Lwin works tirelessly providing critical thinking training for teachers. His methods are founded in research and observation including that in Europe and America.
From children and adults alike, we heard of the hopes for the future generation of Burma. If democracry is to return, what could become of a country whose youth are uneducated or educated via authoritative rules and rote learning from government materials?

The hope for many lies in their education- a priviledge deeply valued by many Burmese who have moved to the Thai border looking for a better future.

Safely back from Bangkok...

2010-07-21T07:23:00.000-07:00

....but shattered after an epic 19 hour round trip so blog tomorrow....... (seemed to be successful though..... night....

Home Safe and Sound

2010-07-21T04:12:00.000-07:00

Alicia and I arrived home safely this morning into Edinburgh airport. Our 24 hour day yesterday nearly sent us over the edge when we discovered we were not booked into the hotel we thought we were staying at! We had visions of sleeping on the airport floor! Thankfully the wonderful staff at Novotel sorted it out for us and we got a taxi to the Travelodge!

Sheila be warned go to Eva Air desk for hotel voucher. You may even want to double check what the arrangements are with flight company - they were adamant we were booked into the fully booked Novotel. Took 3 hours to sort out!

We will add some photos and a few last blogs over the next few days - once the brain is in gear!

Thank you to everyone who has been reading our blog and especially to those who left encouraging messages. I know a lot of my friends and family had problems with this. I am sure they're not the only ones.

Waiting to go home...

2010-07-20T08:12:00.001-07:00

Every day 1280 students need to go back home or to the boarding houses. This is what they do as they wait their transport.

Weblink Mae Sot to Musselburgh

2010-07-20T04:00:00.000-07:00

Over the last week, Geoff Hart (Sheila's partner) and David Gilmour (East Lothian IT whizz) have been battling against all sorts of odds to establish a weblink between CDC and Campie Schools. This afternoon, they finally made contact in an online conference. HURRAY! Well done David and Geoff. Let's hope we can get it working with the kids in August.

Oh yes and here's the mangy school dug at their feet, doing his bit!

What a night is in store!

2010-07-20T02:23:00.000-07:00

Tonight, Sheila and the 3 teachers from CDC and Say Ta Nar schools are setting off at 11pm in a minibus to drive from Mae Sot to the UK Visa handling office in Bangkok. It opens at 8.30am but we aim to be there from 7am to queue. Collating the documentation and submitting the online applications for our Burmese/Thai teachers to get UK visas for their forthcoming trip has taken many many frustrating hours.

For example, as I queued at the bank to withdraw the money for the visas (£68 each), Lisa phoned and said, 'Don't get cash. Ask for 3 separate bank cheques for 3400 thai bhat each, payable to the British Embassy.' I have about 5 words in Thai so slumped in horror at the task ahead. You all know how unhelpful UK banks would be about that sort of thing. However, the very polite and courteous Thai banker could not have been more helpful and we now have 3 such cheques in our hands. Why am I still not convinced this will work? Be optimistic Sheila!

I'm going to eat early so I won't need to go to the toilet until we return in however many days time to Mae Sot! You have no idea how important this is!

So think of us on our visa run.... watch this space.....

Sorry to be boring!

2010-07-20T02:13:00.000-07:00

No, Murray, even I can't make Monitoring and Evaluating Presentations fun! My interpreter was actually in a different meeting so Dr Cynthia Maung had to do the interpretations of How Good Is Our School. What an amazing woman she is. I presented to a small group of CDC managers and leaders. Data collection to show impact on pupils is very important to them for many reasons. With such data, their funding applications can be more successful. So it looks like I've found a wee job for my ever patient husband, who previously created an outstanding database for attainment for me and other schools. Geoff is about to convert a version of Roytracker into Burmese for CDC school. What a man!

Burma - Myawaddy

2010-07-19T02:52:00.000-07:00

So finally we hand over our passports to Burmese immigration officials and find our feet on Burmese soil in Myawaddy! We have waited so long for this and the afternoon did not disappoint. As we walk along the main street it is evident that Myawaddy has very few signs of Westernisation. No Coke signs, no KFC and no modern cars. What we find instead are lovely people who burst in to smile when we smile and say Mingla Ba (hello in Burmese)! We wander up an amazing market full of beautiful colours, smells and a wide variety of Burmese produce and textiles. If you look closely you see people working in the back of these stalls - on old fashioned Singer sewing machines - running up shorts and tops to sell. We have never experienced anything like this before. As we wander back along the main streets we see a man carrying a large bundle of Burmese money on his shoulder - can you imagine this on the streets of Musselburgh! Albeit their money is worth very little so it may not have been the thousands of pounds it looked like. After collecting our passports (thankfully) we walk back across the river which marks the border between Thailand and Burma. We are all deep in thought about the "problems" the Burmese people face and what the future holds for them. PS WE ARE HAVING HUGE PROBLEMS FINDING INTERNET ACCESS IN CHIANG MAI. THIS COMPUTER DOES NOT EVEN HAVE A WORKING RETURN KEY!! PHOTOS TO FOLLOW WHEN WE ARRIVE HOME.

The things we do for Burma!

2010-07-18T22:41:00.000-07:00

I am sitting in my Mae Sot hotel preparing a presentation on Monitoring and Evaluating in Scottish Schools. I must be off my trolley! Can you think of a more boring subject for a presentation? However this is a really important area for CDC school, so whatever they need.... Better get on with it. Here's a boring picture to go with my boring subject!

So proud of my teachers!

2010-07-17T23:11:00.000-07:00

Sitting in Mae Sot's posh coffee shop, which is the only place we can find that has the internet! The hotel's is still down.

Here are Katherine, Alicia and Hannah, looking fresh, clean and ready for holiday as they left Edinburgh Airport.

Here they are, after 10 days in Mae Sot - wet, mozzy bitten and probably minging, following a cycle back from school in the torrential rain.

Katherine, Alicia and Hannah left Mae Sot yesterday morning after a very hard week's work in CDC school.

As your headteacher, Alicia, Hannah, Katherine, I am so proud of

1. the imaginative and creative teaching you modelled in CDC school
2. the relationships you built with CDC teachers and our Mae Sot friends
3. the compassion you felt for the Burmese and Karen children you met
4. your questioning of the situation here in Mae Sot for the Burmese people
5. your thinking about the future of Burma
6. your determination to develop the Campie CDC partnership in future years
7. last but not least, your courage as you overcame the very different lifestyle challenges of living here

Thank you each so much for giving so much of yourself - and your holiday time! It's great to have your companionship in our determination to let people know the situation of our Burmese and Karen friends.

So would everyone else like to know what was their typical day like?

6.15am Rise, go to toilet before you shower because the shower showers the toilet ( and the toilet roll so remember to take that out first!). Shower in erratic shower, then pack for school. This involves taking midgie cream, suntan lotion, handwash, toilet wipes, water, raincoat, sunhat, malaria tablets, camera, phone, thai money AND DON'T FORGET THE BIKE KEY.....or you have to climb 3 steep flights of hotel stairs to get it again. This happens often! Oh yes, and bring your dirty clothes down to the laundry who will have it washed, dried and ironed by the next day. Ironed everything including socks for about 50 bhats or £1!

7.15am Meet others at bikes, wait till someone climbs stairs to collect what we've forgotten like did we remember our teaching resources? Cycle first part of quite long journey to school. First half takes 15 mins.

7.40am Arrive Casa Mia for breakfast of crepes/toast and cornflakes/banana pancakes/watermelon/lime shakes/coffee.... yum. Back onto bikes unless Katherine's chain has fallen off again at which point she will cry!

8.30am Arrive school. Organise resources then teach from 9am - 3.30pm pretty well non stop in nursery, Kindergarten, Grade 1, 4, 5, 6, 7. You've read about this in the blog. What it doesn't say is that we are teaching in such hot, humid conditions that we are constantly slippy with sweat and beetroot in face. Don't underestimate how uncomfortable this is, it is truly horrible. We feel constantly MINGING! And then we have to negotiate the toilets. Sheila managed to avoid going to school toilets at all - I've worked hard to develop this technique over 4 years! Katherine was the opposite and became a master of going to local squat toilets because she went so much! There are no staff toilets and no closed cubicles, giving Katherine some interesting experiences not to be blogged but promising to make our first inservice day amusing!

3.30pm School ends as 1200 children pile into overloaded buses, run through paddy fields, walk or cycle or motorbike home. We usually stay for an after school English club or for a meeting about our Global School Partnership. We had 2 of these meetings, both attended by Dr Cynthia Maung, which was a great honour. Don, if you are reading this, Dr Cynthia Maung is a great lady who has won many humanitarian awards for her work here for the health and education of the Burmese and Karen people. http://www.maetao.org/ She may accompany the Burmese teachers to Scotland. We hope you will be able to meet with them. I'll email you.

5.30pm Arrive back at hotel, usually drenched to skin with either rain or sweat! All collapse in Sheila and Geoff's room which he has ready at fridge temperatute using air con. All drink cold coke! Crash! We do have 3 separate rooms. 1. Geoff and Sheila 2. Hannah and Louise 3. Kat and Alicia. Rooms 2 and 3 have scary, randomly gurgling toilets. Another toilet story is that the teachers were putting their toilet paper in the toilet, resulting in almost overflowing toilets. Used toilet paper here goes in the bin, not the toilet.... yes, very ugh!)

7pm Off out for tea, to a variety of local restaurants that sell thai, burmese or western food. Typical meal costs £2.50, which is dearer than it used to be.

9.30pm Return to hotel. It's time to internet and blog. It's 3.30pm so the UK is up and we are all excited that you may have commented on our blog but usually you haven't! Ah well, we continue. Thanks to everyone who had got in touch. We know lots of you are reading and that REALLY matters to us.

11.30pm Sleep... ready to go at 6am again in the morning

Is it a holiday? For me, it's been more gruelling this year .... am I getting older? ..... CDC is further away and with Hle Bee we started at 10am. Who knows? Anyway NONE of these discomforts matter a jot when you see what we saw last night as we sat tucking into our meal.

A woman walked past pushing a battered old wheelbarrow type carrier with a toddler sitting in all the rubbish she had salvaged from bins as she walked round town in the torrential rain. Think of that child's life .... puts it all into heartbreaking perspective. Sheila

Exhaustion!

2010-07-17T07:06:00.000-07:00

We have made it safely to Chiang Mai although barely know what day it is. The Internet access was down in Mae Sot yesterday and could still be - if you don't hear from Sheila don't panic!

Yesterday was amazing.

It began with another early start (6am - yuk!) and assembly. What an event! Kindergarten to Grade 7 packed out the assembly hall while the remaining 600 students joined in with singing and dancing from the school's balcony. It was incredibly moving as Sey Hei and Sheila reviewed the week that we'd had and the experiences that we'd shared. We sang some fabby Fischy music which the students LOVE. At the end of the assembly we were deeply touched to be gifted with beautiful Karen tops, part of the traditional outfit worn be Burmese people from the Karen state. Our outfits were completed with sparkly, delicate brooches. CDC also gifted Campie a stunning picture (inlay) of a traditional scene, made from sand, which will take pride of place at the entrance to Campie. We were very sad to leave but also excited that this is only the beginning of our friendship with CDC school.

Following are first trip to Burma (we'll fill in the details in a later blog) we visited Sey Hei's boarding house and the 80 girls that live there. We were blown away by the welcome that we received. Sey Hei and the children were literally out on the street to meet us. "You will take a little food with us?" they said.

The accommodation, which for many of the students is their only home, comprises of four floors: a living area, a basic kitchen, a floor for washing and drying clothes and two floors for the students' sleeping area. The house was highly organised. Each child had a box for their own belongings and a mat for sleeping on which was rolled up during the day. Students were split in to groups which took part in the running of the house. Washing, cleaning, ironing and cooking are part of every day life for students living in migrant boarding houses. We were surprised and shocked to learn that students could not leave the confines of the boarding house, with the exception of attending school. They live in Thailand illegally. Although they are tolerated by Thai officials they must abide by strict regulations; if they were to leave the safety of their boarding house they could be arrested and deported due to their illegal status.

While we completed the tour of the four story boarding house our food was prepared. We were acutely aware that the boarding houses lack funds and we have heard that they have had to cut back on rations, but refusing to partake in dinner would have seemed ungrateful to a culture that is based on generosity. The students diet is based on rice and fish paste so you can imagine our horror as plates of curried pork, deep fried chicken and eggs began to appear.

SORRY - no pictures for now. We are in an Internet cafe and are not allowed to upload files.

Alicia, Katherine and Hannah

Guilt

2010-07-15T09:27:00.001-07:00

As the girls sat writing their blog I pondered over tonight's events.

I had been feeling pretty good about tonight having attended Borderline's (shop and gallery) birthday celebrations. It was a lovely way to relax after our last day of teaching at school. I had purchased quite a few items including an original painting by a local Burmese artist - who I was more than delighted to have met tonight too!

The amount I spent was around the same as a CDC's teachers monthly salary - more than the local average. What could I have done with this amount of money instead? How many days worth of food for a Boarding House could I have contributed too? How could it have improved a family's living conditions and for how long? Would they really want my money - surely they just want to go home?

The good things about this purchase are the artist will receive 75% of the price I paid. It's great fair trade and at least I know it is going to a good cause. The other thing is I will have this reminder in my house, of Burma and its' people, and when visitors ask I will be able to share their stories and raise awareness of their plight.

So what is it about CDC?

2010-07-15T08:22:00.000-07:00

Scotland and Burma - our display.

The students loved seeing photos of themselves and Campie children.

Checking out our display!

Circle time with Grade 7

We're feeling a bit shell shocked. We did not know what to expect from this week. We feel a mixture of things now that we are coming to the end of our visit. Disbelief. The Burmese people that we have met are so sincere, welcoming and generous. Surely they could not have experienced the extraordinary hardships that we keep hearing of? The disturbing fact is that most of them have. One thing that we have realised is that each and every one of them has their own story.

Today a group of four children were finding a task difficult. Their task was to argue why their 'person' should be the one to remain in a sinking hot air balloon. There was a range of ten people including: baby, doctor, businessman, and mother. They had the 'mother'. While the other groups worked away, they didn't. They couldn't think of any reasons. They have no experience of having a mother.

Their teacher who has supported us tirelessly this week offers his students excellent, forward thinking learning experiences. He is passionate about education. His students and his own. At 16 he walked from his village in Mon State for 7 days to a refugee camp on the border in the hope of continuing his education. His mother, who he did not want him to leave, encouraged him to do this for his own future. After four years teacher training in the camp he began teaching in migrant schools. What does he do outwith school? He lives and helps to run a boarding house where students without parents live.

You cannot come here and leave again without being deeply effected by the situation of Burmese migrants and the spirit of their people. What can we do about it? At the moment we don't know, but we know that we can't do nothing.

Alicia and Hannah

Election Day

2010-07-14T07:47:00.000-07:00

Six parties competed to be elected in today's class election. Dynamic leaders were chosen to lead their parties and speeches were prepared and delivered with panache.

Students added to their parties manifesto, making promises to their people. Stop the deforestation of Mae Sot, let every child have access to a computer, have gym at school.

Students waited tensely while the votes came in.

The winning parties were jubilant with some leaders even made exceptance speeches.

If only Burma's October election could be as democratic.

Hannah and Alicia

Grade 4

2010-07-14T07:08:00.000-07:00

Spent the first few periods today with Grade 4's - who seemed massive compared to tiny little nursery and kindergarten children. We think the school had really thought about our meeting last night and wanted to share their Scottish visitors around. This was great news as this school has 1200 children and many visitors so this meant our profile within the school was raised.

The children enjoyed learning a little about Scottish culture and they all felt the came away knowing at least one thing to tell a friend or family member.

This boy in the hoodie was so into learning about Scotland. He made his way round the room looking at all the photos the other children were talking about.
This boy dutifully copied my (not so exact) map of the UK onto the back of his jotter - without being asked.

This boy seemed totally disengaged during the lesson however sat and copied out a detailed drawing of Campie School - kinaesthetic learner?!

We ended the day by putting our little Kindergarten class to sleep with our relaxing song - think every day showed end so peacefully!

Signing off for tonight - no brain cells left! We are all exhausted today!

Katherine

Global Schools Partnership meeting and the poo sucking machine!

2010-07-13T10:00:00.000-07:00

Today we met to discuss our CDC-Campie partnership at 4pm after school. As we waited for Dr Cynthia to arrive, the CDC teachers were holding their noses because the poo sucking machine had arrived. This machine comes round and sucks the poos out of the toilet tanks and it was very smelly! We left after great discussion at 6.30pm. We were minging sweaty, starving and so unbearably hot.

We went then to meet the Pirniehall teachers who had just arrived then 8 Scots trekked off to eat together. Lovely.

I Feel Good!

2010-07-13T08:51:00.000-07:00

The nursery was just lovely today! We walked in to find them all doing an active learning session in pairs. The children were given the English word for a body part by the teacher and they were then to point to that part on their partner. One of the groups was playing elbow to elbow, knee to knee. The children were so gentle with each other. It was super to watch all this going on and with such good adult : child ratios. The staff are amazing. We then gave it our all with some Fischy music!! What good ears for new language these children have?So young - 3,4 and 5 years old!

Both Grade 1's managed to get a short lesson on being happy - Emotional Literacy - similar stuff to our Creating Confident Kids Programme.

Before coming out to Thailand I had planned a series of lessons on children around the world and their rights - what you need and want to survive the world over. However having spent time teaching them songs such as I Feel Good by Fischy Music it seemed to make sense to link the work to emotions.

We looked at pictures of happy children and talked about why they may be happy. They then had to choose a favourite picture, come out to the front and use a post-it note to identify the picture and give a reason why. One girl in the picture was identified as being happy because she had a sofa to sit on - nothing to do with the toys/dolls in her arms.

Tomorrow we will get them to talk about what makes them happy. I am looking forward to hearing what they say. We are unsure how much emotional literacy work these children get and it is so important they are able to express themselves and realise it is normal to feel the way they do. What makes these children tick? Is it similar to Campie chilren?

P.S. Is this not the cutest thing ever? Sheila played a relaxing song and told them to put their heads down - quite a few fell asleep instantly. No Ms Porter we did not bore them we exhausted them with singing, actions and maths!!